Nobody Wants This star Jackie Tohn recently underwent a preventative double mastectomy after her family’s health scares.
“In January of 2025, my dad found lumps under his arm and went to the doctor and they turned out to be metastatic carcinomas,” Tohn, 45, said on Today With Jenna and Sheinelle on Friday, May 15, referring to her father’s rare form of cancer. “They couldn’t find where the primary cancer in his body was, so they gave him a panel of hereditary genetic testing to try and figure it out.”
Tohn’s father subsequently tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation, which is a common indicator of breast cancer.
“I got tested shortly thereafter, and when I was in the doctor’s office she was like, ‘You have a 50 percent chance of having it and let’s see what happens,’” Tohn recalled. “I went for a routine mammogram and mentioned it when I was there … and their energy changes a little bit and they’re like, ‘You know what, don’t leave today without being tested.’”
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Tohn took the BRCA test herself in June 2025 after wrapping Nobody Wants This season 2.
“I found out that I am BRCA1 positive, and I met with a genetic counselor. It turned out that I have an 85 percent chance of getting breast cancer,” the actress recalled on Friday. “What’s crazy is when you get a diagnosis like this, you don’t know your options.”
Tohn subsequently “put on [her] big girl pants” and sought ways to deal with the potential health scare.
“Then, I had to find a whole medical team, and I love who I landed on,” she said. “[On] December 1, 2025, I got [a] straight to reconstruction double mastectomy.”
A double mastectomy, per the Cleveland Clinic, is a surgical procedure to remove both breasts. A surgeon can later reconstruct the tissue or add implants in the patient’s chest.
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Tohn, for her part, is now advocating for early detection and genetic testing.
“So many things had to happen to line up for me to have this information, but they say that the three things you should look out for are rare, young and multiple,” she said. “If there’s a rare cancer in your family like with my dad it was male breast cancer [or] ovarian, pancreatic [or] somebody had it young … those are the people that make the most sense to get it.”
Tohn also received support from her BFF and Nobody Wants This costar Kristen Bell after her procedure.
“My bestie @jackietohn took her beautiful boobies off,” Bell, 45, wrote via her Instagram Stories on Friday. “It saved her life ❤️.”
