The Office's Jenna Fischer Says Breast Cancer Diagnosis Made the Important Things in Life 'So Clear So Quickly'

Jenna Fischer looks at life differently after going through treatment for stage 1 triple-positive breast cancer.

In an emotional sit-down with Today's Hoda Kotb that aired on the NBC morning show on Monday, Oct. 21, the actress — known for her role on The Office — said learning she had cancer put everything into focus.

"All of the most important things became so clear so quickly," said Fischer, in her first interview about her health. "I find the world to be such a beautiful place in all of its quirkiness [now]."

"Even things that used to irritate me, I now sometimes find charming," she continued, using traffic as an example. " ‘Oh look at you, cute traffic,' " Fischer said jokingly in a baby-talk voice. "'Look at all the people just going places. Oh that guy's mad!’ "

The 50-year-old went on to encourage other women watching at home to have hope during the difficult time, explaining that while she was recovering she used to watch Kotb, Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager and "all the fellas" at the Today show.

"I know that there’s a lady right now who is sitting on a bench at the end of the bed with her pillow and she’s wondering, ‘What’s next for me?’ " said Fischer. "And I just want to be like, ‘No, you’re going to get off the bend, just like I did. You’re going to get your life back. You’re not even going to believe all the beauty and wonder that’s ahead of you in this journey.’ "

Fischer first shared news of her diagnosis in an Oct. 8 Instagram post in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. She said on Today that a year prior, she went in for her "annoying" routine mammogram appointment that she had been "putting off."

Three weeks later, she was asked to go in for another mammogram and breast ultrasound follow-up, officials telling her that she had "dense tissue" that made things difficult to see. "It was a total eye-roll," Fischer recalled. "This is why I would put this off, because I have to go back again."

But Fischer's mood shifted when she was told she needed a biopsy. "The mood changed," she said. "That's when I got nervous."

Doctors ran several more tests and a month after that mammogram, Fischer was diagnosed with the rare and aggressive form of breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy in January 2024 to remove the tumor, which was luckily caught early and hadn’t spread. The actress also underwent 12 rounds of chemo beginning in February, three weeks of radiation beginning in June, and has since been treated with infusions of two other medications, which she will continue to be on until February 2025.

The good news is, however, that doctors have told Fischer there is no evidence of cancer any longer. Though her infusion center didn't have a bell, she celebrated the milestone in her backyard with her husband, Lee Kirk, and their two kids: son Weston Lee, 13, and daughter Harper Marie, 10.

"My husband Lee was absolutely incredible," Fischer said. "A typical morning for us would be both of us getting up in the morning, making school lunches and doing school drop-offs. But under the circumstances, the most — oh my gosh, now I’m getting emotional about it — but you know, the most I could do was just get downstairs and just sit at the table with a cup of coffee. And he did all the rest."

As for her kids, Fischer said they were by her side through her journey.

"The biggest thing I wanted them to know is that any ways in which I seemed sick during this process were side-effects of treatments, they weren’t cancer making me sick. They were side-effects," Fischer told Kotb. "And then we just kind of did it together and they were amazing."

In her social media post on Oct. 8, Fischer said that she's "feeling great."

She told her followers that she was sharing her story to encourage others to stay on top of their annual mammograms and ask their doctors to calculate their Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score. 

“If I had waited six months longer, things could have been much worse,” she said. “It could have spread. Seeing women post photos of their mammogram appointments on Instagram needled me into setting my own (which I was late for). I’m so glad I did. Consider this your kick in the butt to get it done.”