“I didn’t talk about it because I didn’t want pity.” Terry Bradshaw battled bladder cancer in silence and kept the diagnosis private back in November 2021 because he didn’t want sympathy. But when he first learned he had bladder cancer, it wasn’t the biggest concern for the Pittsburgh Steelers legend. In fact, it was the trauma he revisited after his wife informed him about the diagnosis.

“There’s nothing funny about cancer, but the last time I got divorced, my wife calls me, and she says, ‘I need you to sit down. I don’t love you anymore. I want a divorce.’ Oh, alright. End of that story,” Bradshaw recalled during his conversation with Joe Rogan. “So, my wife’s sitting outside after she gets the reports. I didn’t know she got the report.”

“She says, ‘Honey, I need you to sit down.’ I ain’t sitting down. I don’t want another divorce. That’s the first laugh into my head. The last time I heard a woman tell me, ‘I need you to sit down,’ my ass is out there at 5:00 that afternoon. That was why I wouldn’t sit down. She said, ‘You got bladder cancer,’ and I said, ‘All right, I can deal with bladder cancer. I can’t deal with another divorce.”

Bradshaw is currently married to Tammy Bradshaw after going through three divorces. The four-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback was married to Melissa Babish from 1972 to 1973, JoJo Starbuck from 1976 to 1993, and then to Charla Hopkins from 1983 to 1999. However, things worsened for Bradshaw after his third divorce.

Following his professional football career, Bradshaw revealed his struggles with anxiety and admitted that he “could not bounce back” like he once had after his previous two divorces. In the late 1990s, Bradshaw suffered weight loss, sleeplessness, and was diagnosed with clinical depression, forcing him to rely on Paxil regularly.

Then, in 2014, Bradshaw tied the knot with Tammy after the couple had dated for more than a decade. And since then, Tammy has been by his side through all, especially during Bradshaw’s cancer battle. The 77-year-old NFL legend first learned about his bladder cancer diagnosis during a routine checkup with his doctor.

Bradshaw initially consulted a doctor in Dallas, who told him that the blood in his urine wasn’t a major concern. However, he continued to struggle with the issue, which prompted his wife to search for the best specialist in the country. Her research eventually led the couple to Yale University Medical Center in New Haven, CT, for the treatment.

After going through an exploratory biopsy, Bradshaw’s diagnosis came out. Subsequently, Bradshaw underwent surgery to remove the tumor in his bladder, followed by weekly Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) treatments for six weeks, and three months of maintenance BCG treatments. And after a tough battle, Terry Bradshaw revealed that “I am bladder cancer-free.”

But Terry and Tammy’s battle wasn’t over yet. In fact, just five months after beating bladder cancer, Bradshaw was diagnosed with another cancer, and this time, he had to endure severe treatment side effects.

Terry Bradshaw had a second cancer scare just months after becoming cancer-free

Just five months after his first diagnosis, Terry and Tammy Bradshaw received another devastating news when the couple found out that the Steelers’ legend had been diagnosed with a Merkel cell tumor, a rare and aggressive form of skin cancer, in his neck. But unlike bladder cancer, Bradshaw’s road to recovery after his diagnosis was tough.

The 77-year-old had severe side effects after he underwent a neck dissection, followed by proton beam radiation therapy at The University of Texas. Following the surgery, he endured facial swelling and numbness, neck pain and soreness, and skin tightness. For Tammy Bradshaw, however, her husband’s struggles carried significant emotional weight.

“The doctor calls me to tell me what it is, and then I’m shook because I was a radiation therapist for 10 years,” Tammy said. “I knew where this could go. I knew what the outcomes could be. And it did scare me the second time with that diagnosis. I never said this to him, but inside I carried a lot more worry and stress than what I let him know I think.”

Throughout his cancer battle, Tammy remained by Bradshaw’s side. Fortunately, Bradshaw eventually beat his second cancer and credited his wife for becoming a cancer survivor.

“My wife was good,” Bradshaw said. “She said, ‘Hey, you’re going to beat this. You’re a positive man. We got the best doctors.’ And so away we went. My wife was constantly asking questions, she researched everything, she called the doctor, and she had a lot of answers for me. And that was good. I always had her, and she was always loving. She was always telling me how much she loves me. That’s the most important thing – those that you love are there for you to lift you up. And it just fills your heart with joy, just absolute joy.”

Today, Terry and Tammy Bradshaw have been married for over a decade. And while those few months were tough for the couple, Bradshaw later admitted that he may have 25 or 30 years left, but he’s going to act like he’s got just one.