Soap legend Eric Braeden is feeling “grateful” as he shares a positive health update after being cancer-free for six months.
The Young and the Restless star spoke with Entertainment Tonight following the daytime soap’s recent four-season renewal, where he opened up about his health status.
“My cancer diagnosis right now is on hold, as it were, and [I’m] very grateful for very good doctors and very good modern cancer treatment, which has improved enormously,” Braeden shared.
The Daytime Emmy-winning actor revealed he was cancer-free last August, four months after he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. At the time, Braeden told fans that doctors performed a cystoscopy and “couldn’t find a damn thing.”
In his interview with ET, Braeden urged people to get checked out for the sake of their health.
“People shouldn’t be afraid of it, you know. Just go and have your cystoscopy, have your colonoscopy, have your heart checked out. Do all that, do it in time,” he stated.
He also shared how he’s been taking things one day at a time, recalling the day he found out he was cancer-free. “It’s funny, I don’t react immediately to things. I react afterwards. On the way home, I thought, ‘Keep on looking at it step by step,’” he said. “That’s good advice for anything you do in life. Don’t anticipate the result; don’t think way ahead. No, take it step by step.”
Braeden has portrayed Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless since 1980 and has become one of the show’s most iconic characters. And he’s clearly excited to carry on making more memorable moments in the many episodes to come.
“I was very happy because it’s obviously a testament to the fact that people still watch it,” he said of the renewal. “Very lucky considering there are so many unemployed people in Hollywood. Very, very lucky.”
He added, “When I came here, I signed for three months. I said, ‘I won’t do any longer than that.’ And the rest is a 44-year history. Isn’t that something?”
