‘As the World Turns’ Star Marnie Schulenburg Dead at 37 Due to Breast Cancer Complications

Photo credit: Taylor Hill - Getty Images
Photo credit: Taylor Hill - Getty Images
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  • As the World Turns star Marnie Schulenburg has died at 37.

  • She had stage 4 breast cancer and was diagnosed in 2020.

  • Her cancer was originally misdiagnosed as mastitis, five months after she gave birth to her first daughter.


On Tuesday, soap opera star Marnie Schulenburg, known for her roles in As the World Turns and One Life to Live, died at 37 due to cancer complications. The actress, wife, and mom of 2-year-old daughter, Coda, was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer in 2020.

Her husband, Succession actor Zack Robidas, confirmed the news in a Facebook post, per Variety. “Please don’t say Marnie lost her battle to cancer. It’s simply not true. I watched her kick cancer’s ass every day since diagnosis,” he wrote. “She is incredible. We chose to attack her diagnosis with blind optimism. We only talked about the future and continued moving forward. I don’t know if this was right but it’s all we knew how to do.”

Schulenburg was open about her difficult journey with cancer online. On Mother’s Day, she wrote an emotional Instagram post, sharing that she had recently been released from the hospital, “but had to be sent home with an oxygen machine.” She added that the situation was not “ideal” for her role as a mom. “I want to be strong and beautiful for her. I want to show her how to move throughout this world with compassion, strength, vivacity, humor, and joy like my Mother showed me,” she wrote.

Schulenburg was also passionate about sharing her diagnosis story because her inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) was originally misdiagnosed as mastitis, or an infection of breast tissue typically caused by breastfeeding. She was five months postpartum at the time.

“By the time we decided another ultrasound was necessary, I had spoken with two lactational consultants, an occupational therapist, my OB/GYN, and a breastfeeding doctor, none of whom ever uttered the word cancer,” she wrote in a December 2020 essay for SheKnows.

“Zack and I vacillate between utter devastation and fierce determination,” she continued on Instagram after being diagnosed. “The narrative of the life we signed on for the day we married will never be the same. Now we must adjust, stay present, and f*cking fight.”

Schulenburg was born in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and studied theater at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, per Variety. Aside from her soap opera roles, she also appeared in Blue Bloods, Army Wives, Royal Pains, Tainted Dreams, Elementary, The Good Fight, and City on a Hill.

While undergoing treatment, Schulenburg hoped to work again. “I will always be an artist but having 90% hair loss, diabetes, and [being] in active treatment for cancer does not make me the most marketable,” she wrote on Instagram. “[But] I’m still getting opportunities to disappear into the world of other people and their stories. It’s such a gift.”

Our thoughts are with Schulenburg’s loved ones at this time.

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