Taylor Swift has revealed in an interview with Variety that her mother Andrea has been diagnosed with a brain tumor amid her ongoing battle with breast cancer.
Andrea Swift, 62, was discreetly undergoing chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer when doctors found the brain tumor. The Swift family had not previously disclosed which type of cancer Andrea was battling. Now, Taylor has opened up about what her family is going through, citing her mother’s illness as a determining factor in her decision not to organize more festivals like she did early on in her career.
Speaking more about her relationship with her mother, Taylor described her as a guiding force.
Everyone loves their mom; everyone’s got an important mom, but for me, she’s really the guiding force. Almost every decision I make, I talk to her about it first. So obviously it was a really big deal to ever speak about her illness.
Brain tumours are notoriously difficult. “The symptoms of what a person goes through when they have a brain tumor is nothing like what we’ve ever been through with her cancer before,” Swift added. Brain cancer has recently claimed the lives of two prominent Canadian musicians, Gord Downie (1964-2017, singer-songwriter for The Tragically Hip) and Neil Peart (1952-2020, drummer and lyricist for Rush).
Please join us in sending love, compassion and strength to Taylor Swift and her entire family in this difficult time.