Amy Robach Was ‘Not Well Mentally’ While Facing Cancer Diagnosis Alone

Amy Robach has said she was “not well mentally” when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and “genuinely needed assistance.”

The former Good Morning America co-anchor was diagnosed with stage 2 invasive breast cancer in 2013 after receiving a mammogram live on air and subsequently undergoing follow-up tests. She went on to have a double mastectomy, several rounds of chemotherapy and reconstructive surgery—completing her treatment in 2014—and is in remission.

She has now revealed that she was by herself when she was told that she had cancer and needed assistance from NYU’s psychiatry team. Robach, 51, opened up on her podcast Amy & T.J as she chatted to Dr. Ruth Oratz, one of her doctors, about the importance of people being supported amid diagnosis.

“I was alone when I was diagnosed and the NYU psychiatry team actually came in to help me because I was not well mentally in the moment,” she shared.

“And I was so grateful for the staff you had and the people who were there to help someone like me in that moment who was, in fact, alone, and needed…I genuinely needed assistance to even get through that next hour. Let alone the tests I was facing throughout the day,” she told Oratz.

Newsweek has emailed a representative for Robach for comment.

Robach, who is mum to daughters Ava and Annalise, has previously said that her cancer journey has changed her as a person, in some ways for the better.

“I wouldn’t be who I am today, I wouldn’t be where I am today, without the cancer and it changes you for the better in a lot of ways,” she said on another episode of her podcast.

“And I remember my oncologist saying this to me when I first got diagnosed, she said, ‘Of all of the women who I have treated, when they come back after they are in remission, not a one of them, with some perspective, would give it back because they wouldn’t be who they are today without that journey.'”

“I know that sounds crazy and weird and bizarre,” the 20/20 star went on. “And I kind of always joke that I am still not in that place where I wouldn’t have given it back, because I think I still would. Because you can finish your treatment and you can be in remission but you will always live with this diagnosis because there is always the fear of reoccurrence.”