Harry Connick Jr. Opens Up on Wife’s Secret Cancer Battle

On an upcoming episode of “Harry,” Harry Connick Jr. and his wife Jill Goodacre reveal her breast cancer diagnosis.

After Harry said they “ran into a little trouble” in 2012, Jill shared, "I'll never forget it. It was one of the hardest days of my life. Exactly five years ago this month, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, exactly five years ago, and it's just so ironic it was breast cancer awareness month.”

Harry, 50, told Jill, 53, who is in remission, "All I wanted to do was grow old with you and have as many years as possible as I could with you.”

In the new issue of People, Harry admitted, "I was scared I was going to lose her, absolutely. I wasn't going to let her see that, but I was. I know from losing my mom that the worst can happen. She's my best friend, and I really don't know what I would do without her.”

Jill was diagnosed with breast cancer after a routine mammogram. Though her mammogram results were clear, something was detected in her sonogram, which led her to get a biopsy.

While she decided not to undergo chemotherapy, Jill went through a lumpectomy and radiation. Of her treatment, Jill said, "The lumpectomy didn't come back with clean margins, so I had to go in for a second surgery the very next day. And then radiation absolutely wiped me out. And since then, there's been the tamoxifen, which I've now been taking for five years.”

As for life after beating cancer, Jill pointed out, “It's not something that's just going to go away like it never happened. I'll always be a little nervous, always having to get checked, always hoping it doesn't come back.”