CNN’s Sara Sidner Announces She Will Undergo Double Mastectomy to Treat Breast Cancer

CNN anchor Sara Sidner will undergo a double mastectomy as part of her treatment plan for breast cancer.

Sidner, morning co-anchor of CNN News Central, announced the operation on-air Wednesday, adding that the procedure would take place on Thursday. (Watch Sidner give the update here.)

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“After five months of chemo, I have not yet become cancer-free,” she said. “The next phase is a double mastectomy… What I have learned so far in my cancer journey is treating it is more a marathon than a sprint.”

In January, Sidner told viewers that she had been diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer.

“I have never been sick a day of my life,” she said at the time. “I don’t smoke. I rarely drink. Breast cancer does not run in my family. And yet here I am with Stage 3 breast cancer. It is hard to say out loud… Stage 3 is not a death sentence anymore for the vast majority of women.”

Watch Sidner’s emotional announcement below.

In January, the anchor revealed that one in eight women will statistically get or have breast cancer throughout the course of her lifetime, and Black women are 41% more likely to die from the disease than their white counterparts.

After pleading for viewers to get their annual mammograms, she continued: “I have thanked cancer for choosing me. I’m learning that no matter what hell we go through in life, that I am still madly in love with this life. And just being alive feels really different for me now. I am happier because I don’t stress about foolish little things that used to annoy me. And now every single day that I breathe another breath I can celebrate that I am still here with you. I am here with my co-anchors, my colleagues, my family, and I can love and cry and laugh and hope. And that, my dear friends, is enough.”

Before being named a co-anchor on CNN News Central alongside John Berman and Kate Bolduan, Sidner also anchored Big Picture with Sara Sidner on CNN+, the network’s short-lived subscription service.

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