Colleen Hoover Warns of the 1 Cancer Symptom She Had Before Her Official Diagnosis: ‘I Knew Something Was Wrong’
Jason Pham
Colleen Hoover is cancer-free now, but she revealed the main symptom that led her to see the doctor before it was too late.
“I passed out a couple of times,” Hoover, 46, told Jenna Bush Hager on the “Open Book With Jenna” podcast on March 5. “I was just not feeling myself. It took a little bit of time to get the diagnosis.”
Hoover specifically referenced a moment on the set of the Reminders of Him movie, which was based on her 2022 book, where she “knew something was wrong” with her body. Once she got her diagnosis, Hoover, who hasn’t disclosed the type of cancer she was diagnosed with, then underwent a “couple of surgeries” before “everything was OK.” “It was almost like I went into it thinking it’s gonna be OK,” she said. “I never really looked at it as like a sentence or doom.”
While Hoover originally kept her diagnosis private and only told close family, she eventually decided to post about her cancer on social media in December 2025 when she was near the end of her treatment. “The last thing I wanted was for it to be all over the internet,” she said.
She continued, “I honestly felt like if you’re gonna have cancer, I had it pretty easy, so I didn’t wanna talk about it because of that. And I actually got an email from a news outlet that had found out through someone else, and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. It’s gonna be out there.’ So I just tried to make light of it and made a funny post and stories and really didn’t put a lot of focus on it.”
She also commended her loved ones for supporting her throughout her cancer journey. “I just have the best support system. And then the recovery was quick. I got very lucky,” she said. As for her health now, Hoover told Bush Hager that she’s prioritizing her sleep and making significant lifestyle changes. “I get a lot of sleep. I make sure of that,” she said. “Now I realize how much better I function if I make sure I get those eight hours every night. And so that has been my priority now.”
She’s also staying up to date with her doctor’s visits. “I definitely have been making all the doctors’ appointments, getting everything checked, getting my mammogram, my colonoscopy,” she said. “Everyone needs to do that. Things that they don’t really recommend at this age, I’m already doing.”
She also credited her husband, William Heath Hoover, for inspiring her to take better care of her health. “He runs every day. He makes sure we have a healthy dinner. He’s really the one that’s kind of kicking me into gear,” she said.
Hoover first announced she had cancer in a post to her Facebook group in 2025. She announced it to the rest of her social media followers in an Instagram Story in January. “Second to last day of radiation,” she captioned a post on her Instagram Stories. “I wish I could blame my hair and facial expressions on @Texas.Oncology, but they’ve been great. Hope you never need them, but highly recommend them,” she wrote on her Instagram Story.
In her Facebook post, Hoover explained that she had “recurring” health issues while filming Reminders of Him, but she ignored them to focus on her work. “I continued to put off until the movie was finished,” she wrote.
She continued, “So while it felt huge and scary for a bit, and I had to miss out on the Regretting You premiere and some other important career and personal moment, I just wasn’t ready to share with anyone until I knew what the outcome would be.”
“I got results back today from the geneticist that say my cancer did not come from family genes,” her Facebook post continued. “It also didn’t come from the two main causes of the cancer, which are HPV and excessive hormones. This means it was more than likely environmental/lifestyle, which is lack of exercise, poor diet and stress.”
She added, “I’m happy and grateful to be alive but I hate vegetables. I hate when I have to get off the couch. I hate sweating. I hate when science is right. If you see me at the gym, don’t even tell me good job. If you see me at a restaurant eating grilled chicken and drinking water, I’m probably real mad about it.”
Months before she shared her diagnosis, Hoover announced on October 17 that she would be skipping several work events, including the premiere for the Regretting You movie, based on her 2019 book. “I’m super bummed, but am having an unavoidable surgery and can’t travel for a while,” Hoover wrote in her Instagram post at the time. “I’ll live vicariously through you guys.” She continued. “So sad to miss this movie release and premiere, but so grateful to all the actors and the team who put this together.”
