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Here's to getting well soon!
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Jan 23, 2020
Taylor Swift's beloved mother, Andrea Swift, has been battling cancer for a long time. And while Swift's fans have been hoping that she's been getting better, a recent announcement made by the "Blank Space" singer made fans realize that, rather than getting better, Swift's mother's cancer had not only returned, but took on a different form: it was recently discovered that Swift's mother also has a brain tumor.
So what type of cancer and brain tumor does Taylor Swift's mom have?
The brain tumor was discovered while she was undergoing chemotherapy treatments for yet another form of cancer, which is completely devastating to the 62-year-old, who is adored by both Swift and her "Swiftie" fanbase alike.
So let's look at what we know about cancer that Andrea Swift is facing — and wish her all the best in the world as she hopefully beats the odds.
1. What type of cancer does Taylor Swift's mother have?
Andrea Swift is battling both breast cancer and a brain tumor. During an exclusive interview, Taylor Swift said that her mother, Andrea, had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Taylor Swift also said that doctors discovered the tumor while they were treating her mother for breast cancer. "And the symptoms of what a person goes through when they have a brain tumor is nothing like what we’ve ever been through with her cancer before. So it’s just been a really hard time for us as a family,” she said.
2. Taylor Swift first revealed her mother's cancer diagnosis in March 2019.
Back in March 2019, while penning a personal essay, Swift revealed that both of her parents had battled cancer in the past. But while her father's cancer was in remission, her mother's cancer was not. "Both of my parents have had cancer, and my mom is now fighting her battle with it again. It's taught me that there are real problems and then there's everything else. My mom's cancer is a real problem," she said.
3. Swift also previously said she would be cutting back on her tour schedule to support her mother.
While her Lover tour is one of the most anticipated of the year, Swift made clear that she won't be performing on as many dates because of her mother's recent diagnosis. In fact, her official tour dates reveal that she'll be doing more festivals than a proper stadium tour, and there's nowhere near as many tour dates as she'd had in the past. "This is a year where I have to be there for my family — there's a lot of question marks throughout the next year, so I wanted to make sure that I could go home. I mean, we don't know what is going to happen. We don't know what treatment we're going to choose. It just was the decision to make at the time, for right now, for what's going on," she said.
4. Swift revealed her mother's initial cancer diagnosis in a heartfelt Tumblr post back in 2015.
In a Tumblr post that had since been deleted, Swift revealed that her mother was diagnosed with cancer for the first time. Titling the post "Just So You Know," the singer made the heartbreaking revelation to her millions of fans, and admitted that this was the first time she'd felt comfortable talking about her mother's cancer diagnosis. "For Christmas this year, I asked my mom that one of her gifts to me be her going to the doctor to get screened for any health issues, just to ease some worries of mine. She agreed, and went in to get checked. There were no red flags and she felt perfectly fine but she did it just to get me and my brother off her case about it. The results came in, and I'm saddened to tell you that my mom has been diagnosed with cancer," she said, though she didn't disclose the type of cancer her mother had, at the time.
5. Swift said she hoped this revelation would make people look at her as more than a "brand."
In the same Tumblr post, Swift revealed that the reason she wanted her fans to know about her mother's illness was that she wanted them to see her as more than a "brand." Rather, she wanted her fans to realize that she was a real human being with real emotions.
6. Swift wrote a song on Lover for her mother called "Soon, You'll Get Better."
As an emotional response to her mother's dire prognosis, Swift wrote and released a song called "Soon, You'll Get Better," which can be found on her new Lover album. The song, which features none other than the Dixie Chicks, is about Swift willing "someone" — a loved one, really — to "get better" from an illness. "The buttons of my coat were tangled in my hair/In doctor's-office-lighting, I didn't tell you I was scared/That was the first time we were there/Holy orange bottles, each night I pray to you/Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too/And I say to you/Ooh-ah, soon you'll get better," she sings.
And on that note, we hope that Swift's mother gets better, soon.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, publicist, and photographer whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, BET.com, and more.