Julia Child Secretly Battled Cancer Years Before She Died—Here’s What Ultimately Caused Her Death
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Ever since her death in 2004, Julia Child has been the subject of several projects—including 2009’s Julie & Julia and the 2022 HBO Max series, Julia. While these television series and films explore her life in great detail, many fans still have questions about how Julia Child died after all these years.
Child, who was born Julia Carolyn McWilliams in Pasadena, California on August 15, 1912, was a cooking teacher, author and TV personality who is known for popularizing French cuisine in America thanks in no small part to her 1961 cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The cookbook—which has sold more than 1.5 million copies since it was first published—was an instant critical and commercial success, and remains a seminal work of culinary literature today. Its publishing success led to the production of Child’s first cooking show, The French Chef, in 1963. The show ran nationally for ten years, during which it won both Peabody and Emmy Awards—including the first Primetime Emmy award for an educational program. The series cemented Child’s status as one of the most widely seen and treasured culinary personalities in America, if not the world, before her death in 2004.
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Now, nearly two decades since she passed away, the interest in Child’s life and career continues. Her story is at the center of HBO Max’s 2022 biopic series Julia, which premiered on March 31, 2022. The show, which stars English actress Sarah Lancashire, follows Child in the period after the success of her cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. But even fans of the show may be left with questions about how Julia Child died. For everything we know about Child’s death—including her private health battles throughout the years—just keep on reading below.
How did Julia Child die?
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Julia Child died on August 13, 2004, just two days before her 92nd birthday. She passed away at 2:50 a.m. at home at an assisted living center in Montecito, California. “She passed away in her sleep,” Julia Child’s niece, Philadelphia Cousins, said at the time. “She was with family and friends and her kitten, Minou. She had cookbooks and many paintings by her husband Paul around the house.”
Nicholas Latimer, director of publicity for Child’s publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, also issued a statement following the famed chef’s passing. “America has lost a true national treasure,” he said at the time. “She will be missed terribly.”
Child’s death followed decades of success in her career. In 1965, she was the recipient of a Peabody award. The following year, she won an Emmy for her work on The French Chef. With the royalties from the sales of her seminal book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Child and her husband even built a country house in Provence, France. They spent their Christmas at the property, La Pitchoune, in 1966. They would spend the next few decades escaping to their French home to rest and work. “How fortunate we are at this moment in our lives! Each doing what he most wants, in a marvelously adapted place, close to each other, superbly fed and housed, with excellent health, and few interruptions,” Paul once wrote to his brother around this time.
Still, Child wasn’t always the picture of good health. While completing drafts for her 1968 The French Chef Cookbook, which was based on her PBS series of the same name, Julia was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a routine biopsy confirmed the news, Child’s doctors ordered a full, radical mastectomy. “Left breast off,” she wrote in her datebook for February 18, 1968, per PBS. At the time, stayed a total of 10 days at the hospital, during which time her husband Paul was a wreck. While he feared losing her, Child was reportedly stoic herself until she broke down in tears in a bathtub at home following her hospital stay.
Child’s battle with cancer remained a rare topic of discussion in her life, though she later became vocal about her experience in hopes of inspiring others to pursue treatment. “I would certainly not pussyfoot around having a radical [mastectomy] because it’s not worth it,” she said of her cancer experience in an interview with TIME. It is believed that Child remained in remission up until her death.
What was Julia Child’s cause of death?
While Child was once diagnosed with breast cancer, this was not the ultimate cause of her death. So, what was Julia Child’s cause of death? According to reports at the time of her death in 2004, Child’s cause of death was kidney failure. The California native was in generally good health in the months leading up to her death, regularly visiting farmers markets and eating out often, according to the L.A. Times. It wasn’t until weeks before her death that she began suffering from kidney failure. She passed away in her sleep after eating a last meal of French onion soup.
Julia is available to stream on HBO Max. Here’s how to watch it for free.
My Life in France by Julia Child
Buy: ‘My Life in France’ by Julia Child $10.79
For more about Julia Child, read her 2006 memoir, My Life in France. The New York Times bestseller takes readers through Child’s pivotal years in France—from how she arrived in 1948 with her husband, Paul, with no knowledge of France or its language to how her life changed forever as she dove into the French culture, took classes at the Cordon Bleau and shopped at local markets. The book also takes readers through Child’s unexpected career as a cookbook author and cooking show host at 49 years old, from her conflict with the head of the Cordon Bleu and the dozens of rejections she received from publishers before she sold her now-famous cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The memoir also dives into Child’s 50-year-long marriage with her husband and how their journeys around the globe inspired her as the chef the world remembers today.
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