10 Celebrities Who Have Shared Their Skin Cancer Journeys

Brooke Shields

Back in 2021, Brooke Shields sat down with NewBeauty to talk all things skin health and skin cancer, including how she found out that she herself was afflicted. “It was actually pre-cancer, which was discovered during my annual skin exam,” she told NewBeauty, “I get annual mole checks and so do my kids and husbands. My doctor noticed something on the top of my upper lip, and because I had been going in annually, she knew the difference and she was able to chart it. I was quite shocked. I had noticed something, but I did not attribute it to skin cancer. I thought my lips were just chapped, but it kept showing itself as a sore almost, and it was persistent.” Like many of her generation, Shields’ pre-cancer was likely a result of inadequate sun protection as a teen. “What was surprising to me is that she said it probably came from damage done years and years ago,” she said, ‘The way I grew up, you put tinfoil on an LP and then you put baby oil all over you and you went outside and baked in the sun. It wasn’t until I got older that I started religiously using sunscreen.”