- Will Reeve, 34, revealed on Good Morning America on Sept. 29 that he was diagnosed with testicular cancer earlier this year — and is now cancer-free.
- He found a hard, tender lump in April, just three months after his wedding; his wife Amanda pushed him to get an ultrasound.
- His treatment ran from May to July: surgery to remove a testicle, a six-hour lymph node dissection, and two cycles of chemotherapy.
- He's going public to raise awareness: "I want folks to know that this is a thing that can happen… that you end up okay, almost always."
Will Reeve opened his Good Morning America segment the way a reporter delivers the most important line first. "Right off the top, I need everyone to know, I am OK," he said, his wife Amanda beside him. The cancer, he told viewers, is "in the rearview mirror."
Then he told them the rest: at 34, the ABC News correspondent and youngest son of Superman actor Christopher Reeve was diagnosed with testicular cancer earlier this year, endured months of surgery and chemotherapy in silence, and is only now ready to talk about it. A Sept. 8 checkup confirmed it — he is cancer-free.
"The Images Confirmed the Unimaginable"
The story began quietly, three months after his January wedding to Amanda Dubin. In April, Reeve noticed something was off — a hard, tender lump in his left testicle. At his wife's urging, he went in for an ultrasound. "The images confirmed the unimaginable," he said.
The diagnosis came in May: embryonal carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of nonseminoma germ cell tumor. The treatment plan didn't wait. That same month, surgeons performed an orchiectomy — removal of the affected testicle — the standard first step. For most men the story would end there. For Reeve, it was only the beginning.
He kept working through it all. Colleagues and viewers had no idea. He kept filing stories for ABC while carrying a diagnosis he was telling almost no one about.
Six Hours on the Table, Then Chemo
By June, the cancer had shown its hand. Surgeons performed a six-hour retroperitoneal lymph node dissection — removing dozens of lymph nodes from the back of his abdomen in a procedure so grueling it kept him in the hospital for nearly a week. It also cost him a plum assignment: he had to miss covering the New York Knicks' NBA Finals run for ABC.
The pathology results brought mixed news. Three lymph nodes tested positive. So in July, Reeve began two cycles of chemotherapy. He didn't sugarcoat what followed: ringing ears, night sweats, headaches, blood clots, bone pain. The side effects were real and rough — but the chemo worked. By the end of July, he rang the bell.
It's worth noting what embryonal carcinoma's reputation actually is. According to the Cleveland Clinic, nonseminoma germ cell tumors like his carry a good prognosis when caught before spreading widely — which is exactly why Reeve is now urging young men to take notice of changes and get checked fast.
Why He's Telling the World Now
There's a deeper layer to Reeve's story that he addressed head-on. He was treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center — in the same building where his mother, Dana Reeve, died of lung cancer in 2006 at just 44, two years after his father Christopher's death in 2004. Walking into that building for his own cancer treatment, he admitted, carried enormous weight.
And that is precisely why he decided to go public. "I want folks to know that this is a thing that can happen," he said, "and that you end up okay, almost always." For a man who grew up in the long shadow of his family's medical tragedies, being able to deliver the other ending — the one where the son walks out cancer-free — feels like its own kind of legacy.
Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in young men aged 15 to 35, and when caught early, the survival rate exceeds 95 percent. Reeve's message is disarmingly simple: check yourself, don't wait, and listen to the people who love you. His wife's push for that first ultrasound may well be what saved his life.