Charlie’s Angels alum Cheryl Ladd is opening up about a past battle with breast cancer.
Ladd, 74, made the revelation during a PaleyFest panel discussion in Los Angeles with her former costars Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith on Monday, April 6. The special event marked the hit show’s 50th anniversary.
“Mine was an aggressive form,” the actress said, per People.
“I was bald. It was a humbling experience and yet I have a wonderful husband… he was there for me at every turn,” Ladd said. “Eventually I started to get little sprouts of hair. It was a long, long, hard road, but you just get on with it.”
Ladd credited her “wonderful doctors” with helping her overcome her illness.
The actress said she was opening up about her past cancer experience because the disease has impacted multiple lead actresses of Charlie’s Angels.
Both Jackson, 77, and Smith, 80, have previously been diagnosed with breast cancer. Original Charlie’s Angels star Farrah Fawcett died at age 62 in 2009, three years after she was diagnosed with anal cancer.
“When Cheryl called me, the first thing I did was send her my wigs. She was so brave,” Smith said of hearing news of Ladd’s diagnosis.
Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd attend the ‘Charlie’s Angels’ 50th Anniversary Celebration during PaleyFest LA. Kevin Winter/Getty Images
“If you find a little something in your breasts… do not ignore it,” Ladd said during Monday’s event.
Charlie’s Angels aired for five seasons on ABC from 1976 to 1981. It later spawned a hit movie reboot starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu.
In 2024, former Today show host Kathie Lee Gifford revealed that a casting agent told her she wasn’t pretty enough to appear on the original television show.
Gifford, 72, recalled her unpleasant encounter with the agent in an interview with People.
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“She goes, ‘Let me tell you right now, you’re not right for Charlie’s Angels,’” she said.
When Gifford asked why, the casting agent allegedly said, “Because we’re looking for a pretty girl. … You know, like Jaclyn Smith pretty, gorgeous, gorgeous.”
“It was like kicking me to the gut. I started to think it was funny. I really did,” Gifford shared. “And as I’m walking out, I looked at her and I said, ‘Okay, well, thank you so much.’”
“I said, ‘When you’re casting a cartoon…’ and I threw up my leg. ‘When you’re casting a cartoon, let me know.’ I left thanking God that I could laugh about it,” she added.
“I started to see, first of all, what a bitch she was. What an unnecessary bitch she was,” Gifford said of the casting agent. “She didn’t say, ‘Sorry, honey, have a nice life. You’re not what we’re looking for.’ She had to be cruel. She had to be the exact opposite of what my dad taught me to be. The fact that I remember her name to this day is because she was so cruel.”
