Scary Mommy Blog Creator Jill Smokler Diagnosed With Brain Cancer
Originally appeared on E! Online
Jill Smokler is opening up about her health battle.
The writer, who founded the popular parenthood blog Scary Mommy shared she was diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
"I'm doing pretty much how you'd expect," Jill told Today.com in an interview published May 21. "Not great. I keep alternating between feeling so profoundly sad and so pissed off."
Jill first shared her medical news to Instagram's Threads earlier this month, penning on May 3, "Glioblastoma was not on my 2024 bingo card, alas here we are. Life changes fast, friends."
And the 47-year-old—who said she was diagnosed with cancer after having a seizure April 11—admitted that she posted the note in a "complete drug-induced state" after having surgery. It was a moment she recalled also being unable to recognize her three children Lily, 20, Ben, 18, and Evan, 16, whom she shares with ex-husband Jeff Smokler.
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"I am definitely grateful that I don't remember the looks on their faces when I didn't recognize them," she added to Today. "That must have been gutting."
Jill is no stranger to delivering unfiltered takes on life as a mom as her website quickly garnered a cult following after launching in 2008. And she often used Scary Mommy—which she stepped down from in 2018—to share updates from her life, including her 2017 divorce from Jeff after he came out as gay.
Despite their separation, Jill remained close to her ex, and she explained that her glioblastoma detection has brought the former couple, who were married for 17 years, closer together in a "weird way."
"We talk more and Jeff is very cognizant of what I will be missing out on," she continued to Today. "He's helping me make the most of my time with the kids."
As for her course of treatment, Jill is still looking at her options, which include chemo and radiation or alternative medical trials. "It's the biggest decision ever," she noted. "Everyone keeps saying, ‘Go with your gut'—but I have a terrible gut. It hasn't treated me well."
Still, she is confident she'll put up a good fight in her cancer battle.
"Things look optimistic," she added. "I'm on a younger end of the spectrum and I'm otherwise relatively healthy."
And amid the overwhelming health journey, Jill is continuing to keep her kids at the forefront of her decisions.
"All I want to do is spend time with my kids, ideally on a beach because that's my happy place," she said. "It's so ridiculously bittersweet—I am trying to focus on the sweet part."
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