Amanda Peet's intimate essay revealing cancer is 'way to cope a little'

Amanda Peet is giving insight into what inspired her revelatory essay for The New Yorker.

In the piece published March 21, the 54-year-old actress chronicles her previously undisclosed breast cancer diagnosis, which coincided with both of her parents dying in hospice care.

“The truth is, I really didn't have an agenda that I can point to,” Peet tells USA TODAY in an interview ahead of the return of Apple TV+’s “Your Friends & Neighbors” on April 3. “I don't really know exactly why I started writing. I tried to write over the last 15 years or so. But I'm sure it was some kind of way to cope a little bit and to try to make sense of something that I couldn't make sense of.”

Peet explains in the essay that on Aug. 29, 2025, she went in for “a routine scan,” as she has every six months to monitor her “ ‘dense’ and ‘busy’ breasts.” At the appointment, her physician discovered a small tumor on an ultrasound. Peet’s father, Charles D. Peet Jr., died just days later in his New York home. Meanwhile, Peet’s mother, Penny (née Levy), who lived with Peet on the West Coast, “was in the final stage of Parkinson’s disease,” Peet writes.

A subsequent MRI showed Peet had a second tumor, later determined to be benign. Caregivers addressed Peet’s Stage 1 breast cancer with a lumpectomy and radiation, she writes. She also mentions having a clear scan since. Peet’s mom died in January.

Peet’s “Your Friends & Neighbors” costar Olivia Munn went public with her own breast cancer diagnosis in 2024.“I hope by sharing this it will help others find comfort, inspiration and support on their own journey,” Munn, now 45, wrote on Instagram.Munn revealed she had been diagnosed in 2023, thanks to her doctor calculating her Breast Cancer Risk Assessment score, which looks at factors like Munn's age, family breast cancer history and having her first child after age 30. "She discovered my lifetime risk was 37%," Munn wrote in her post. An MRI and ultrasound later found Munn’s cancer, and she had a double mastectomy.

“I was really moved by (Peet) coming out and talking about it,” Munn tells USA TODAY. “I just think that the more women who share their story, it will always help other women.”

Munn says Peet confided in her about her diagnosis last year.

“We were talking about the size of the tumor,” Munn says. “And I was like, ‘Gosh, your doctors were so great,’ because they found it so early in its development. And to catch it at that place is rare because so many women find it when it's at a different stage. Mine was all over both of my breasts, and she’s just incredibly lucky. And for her to talk about that, it really spotlights to other women that early detection will save your life, and asking your doctor to make that a priority.”