Busy Philipps, 47, Reveals Rare Malignant Brain Tumor Diagnosis After Undergoing Two Surgeries
Busy Philipps discussed her scary brain tumor diagnosis.
Aug. 26 2026, Published 11:18 a.m. ET
Busy Philipps is opening up about her frightening health scare earlier this year, RadarOnline.com can report.
The Freaks and Geeks breakout star was diagnosed with a rare malignant brain tumor and underwent two brain surgeries during what she called "the weirdest six months of my life."
It All Started on a Whim
The film and tv star underwent a five-hour procedure to remove a tumor from her brain.
Looking back on the lengthy ordeal and recovery, Philipps admitted, "I'm grateful that I'm alive."
In an interview with People, the 47-year-old revealed she first went in for an MRI on a whim, curious to see what a Prenuvo scan, a full-body MRI that checks for more than 500 conditions, might find.
"I didn’t know why I wanted to get this scan except for the fact that I just did," said Philipps, who didn't present any obvious symptoms of having a tumor, such as seizures.
But getting the scan may have saved her life. Doctors discovered a grade 2 oligodendroglioma, a rare slow-growing tumor. Suddenly, the situation became serious.
Philipps recalled a doctor telling her, "'This is a real tumor, and it's inside your brain. And Busy, it’s got to come out."
"I was hyperventilating and trying to breathe."
Busy Philipps Had to Tell Her Children About Her Diagnosis
Doctors discovered the tumor after she underwent a routine MRI.
The Cougar Town alum's first move was figuring out how to break the news to her daughters – Birdie, 18, and Cricket, 13. Philipps relied on her famous wit and optimism to let them know.
The actress said Birdie "was kind of beside herself and really, really scared and overwhelmed with emotion."
"I just kept saying to her, 'Birdie, you're just not in the movie where your mom dies your senior year of high school. That's just not the movie that you're in. I promise you,'" she recalled.
Birdie's younger sister, Cricket, took the news better:
"Her reaction when I told her was like, 'Okay. You're going to be fine?' And I was like, 'I’m totally going to be fine.' And she's like, 'Okay.'"
Busy Philipps Needs a Second Surgery
Philipps had to have a second surgery after developing an infection.
What followed was a roughly five-hour surgery, during which doctors removed and biopsied a 2.6-centimeter mass in her brain.
"It is considered malignant, but it has the best prognosis of all of the malignant gliomas," explained Dr. Alexandra Miller, Philipps's neuro-oncologist at NYU Langone. "It’s sort of defined as a cancerous tumor based on the ability of the tumor to regrow over time, rather than it looking very malignant under the microscope."
Doctors noted Philipps's early detection, before she had any symptoms, may have been the key, explaining that if she had waited until she was having seizures, the tumor — which was a grade 2 on a scale of 2 to 4 — would have been two or three times the size, and may have been harder to remove.
Everything seemed fine for the next month or so, as Philipps lived up to her 'Busy' nickname (which had replaced her given name, Elizabeth, during her childhood). But not long into April, she faced a frightening setback when her dermatologist became concerned about her incision.
Philipps had contracted staphylococcus and needed a second surgery to clear the infection.
"I just felt like I was back to square one," the actress explained. "I was really, really upset."
'The Luckiest Girl in the World'
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She considers herself lucky and is thankful for her early detections.
Philipps underwent a second surgery, and again, early detection was key to her recovery. The star recognizes her good fortune and determination to take her health in her own hands. She is also thankful for the scan that caught the tumor early, for her dermatologist, who spotted the infection, and for everything else that went her way.
"What am I? The luckiest girl in the world?" she asked.
Maybe. But her close friend, and fellow actress, Michelle Williams, had a different take.
"She said, 'Busy, you have been saying for the past two years, my brain feels broken.' And she was right. I have. I've been saying this for the last few years," Philipps reflected.
"I wasn’t consciously aware that anything was really wrong, but there was something that was misfiring. Like, I could not get a handle on it. (And now) My brain does not feel broken anymore."
