Laura Dern Details Mom Diane Ladd's Life-Threatening Diagnosis

Laura Dern is getting candid about the terrifying moment she learned that her mom may only have months to live.

The Jurassic Park star's mother, actress Diane Ladd, was diagnosed with a lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis back in 2018, a condition that Dern believes was caused by pesticides sprayed in Ladd's neighborhood in Ventura County, Calif.

As a result, Ladd was told by doctors that she may only have six months left to live, prompting the mother-daughter duo to make the best of the time they had left together.

But Ladd's health crisis would end up bringing them closer than ever, as Dern, 56, did everything she could to help improve her mom's condition, including regular walks, an idea suggested by the doctors.

"They said if you can get her walking, expand her lung capacity, maybe it will help," Dern, 56, revealed in a new issue of PEOPLE, noting that she and her mom began slowly walking together around Santa Monica, during which they began engaging in deeply intimate conversations about their lives.

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"We both longed to talk about the things that we'd left unsaid in our life together," said Dern. "The places we didn't go because we didn't want to hurt each other by bringing up heartbreak or trauma."

Ladd added, "I thought I was dying, so Laura and I just told each other everything. Just fixing ourselves and our relationship was a darn good beginning."

Their conversations ranged from all types of profound topics, including the Dern's parents divorce and the tragic death of her sister, who died at 18 months old following a drowning accident.

"The worst was to talk to her about her sister's death, which I hadn't really done because I didn't want to put her through that," Ladd told the outlet. "But I wasn't doing her a favor by not sharing that—to go back there and talk about a pain that one never truly ever gets over."

Though often difficult, their earnest conversations gave Dern the idea to start recording their talks, which eventually blossomed into the inspiration behind their new joint memoir, Honey, Baby, Mine, which looks back on some of their deepest and wittiest chats.

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Since her diagnosis, Ladd, now 87, has improved significantly, even appearing in an episode of Young Sheldon in 2021.

"They said, your mother will never be here in six months," Dern recalled while speaking to Hoda Kotb on Tuesday's episode of Today. "But from walking and not believing, as my mom said too, 'They say they’re practicing medicine, so I'm not going to believe one doctor, I'm going to go to several, and I'm going to keep fighting with alternative modalities and my daughter and I's love for each other."

"And so she kept going, and she's like, 'All I know is four years later, I made two movies, a TV show and wrote a book,'" the Big Little Lies alum added.

To hear more about Dern's personal conversations with her mom, you can read their brand new joint memoir to hear more of their stories in Honey, Baby, Mine, on bookshelves now.