Quote from Oladosun Joshua Segun on August 27, 2026, 11:10 AM

Busy Philipps is describing a challenging phase. The former cast member of Freaks and Geeks said that she was diagnosed with an oligodendroglioma, a rare brain tumor, earlier this year. She also described the two operations she had to have to remove the cancerous lump.

"I'm grateful that I'm alive," in an interview published on August 26, Philipps informed People. "I had 40-plus staples in my head immediately. They went into my brain. I had a tumor that was 2.8 centimeters by 1.8 centimeters in my right frontal lobe."

Due to bad weather, her January Prenuvo scan—a full-body MRI—had to be rescheduled until February 12. And in the end, that new date came only one day after her Dawson's Creek co-star James Van Der Beek passed away at the age of 48 following a four-year fight with colorectal cancer.

She thought about canceling the appointment again in the midst of her sadness, but she credits her former partner Marc Silverstein for motivating her to go forward.

"My ex-husband Marc, who I'm very close with, called to check in to see how I was doing with James's passing," Philipps clarified, saying that Silverstein informed her, "'Maybe it's the best thing you could do for your friend this morning.'"

Philipps, who is the mother of daughters Birdie, 17, and Cricket, 12, with her ex, described the moment she received her cancer diagnosis after following his advice and receiving the startling news about her malignancy.

"'This is a real tumor, and it's inside your brain. Busy, it's got to come out,'" she remembered what her doctor had said over the phone. "I was hyperventilating and trying to breathe."

A month after the March treatment, her dermatologist expressed concerns about the placement of the incision.

"She's like, 'That doesn't look right. I'm not going to touch it. Can I take a picture of it and will you send it to your surgeons right now?'" Philipps added. "I did. They immediately were like, 'That doesn't look good.'"

The 47-year-old said that having another procedure to check for infections had a major negative impact on her emotional well-being.

"I had two different forms of staph infection in my head and a third bacterial infection and had to be on IV antibiotics overnight," she shared. "I was on oral antibiotics, super high-dose oral antibiotics, for 29 days and had another 40 staples in my head."

"The second surgery really threw me, and then the antibiotics for 29 days really floored me because I was so ready to just be better and work out and not have any restrictions," she pondered. "I just felt like I was back to square one, and I was really, really upset."

She is appreciative of the second chance despite the challenging recuperation. She commended Michelle Williams, her lifelong best friend, for having a crucial discussion about her disease.

"She said, 'Busy, you have been saying for the past two years [that your] brain feels broken,'" Philipps remembered. "She was right. I've been saying this for the last few years. I wasn't consciously aware that anything was really wrong, but there was something that was misfiring. I could not get a handle on it."

What is her post-surgery mood? She went on, "My brain does not feel broken anymore."