Khloé Kardashian revealed that she didn’t tell her family about her melanoma diagnosis at age 19 for a very specific reason.
“My first bout of skin cancer, I was 19 years old. When you’re 19, you don’t really think about how scary things can be, so I don’t remember a lot. I know my dad [Robert Kardashian] died when I was 19 of esophageal cancer and then months later I found out I had skin cancer on my back,” the Kardashians star, 41, said in the Wednesday, July 30, episode of her “Khloé in Wonderland” podcast on X. “I literally didn’t even tell my family because I knew I just had to get this removed and I’ll be fine.”
Robert died in September 2003, two months after he was diagnosed with cancer in his esophagus. He was 59 years old. In addition to Khloé, Robert shared son Rob and daughters Kourtney and Kim with ex-wife Kris Jenner. (Robert and Jenner were married from 1978 to 1991.)
Khloé explained that she opted not to share her health news with her family because she “didn’t want to worry anyone,” especially while they were in a grieving period.
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“I knew I was fine. Cancer is a really scary word. I was also 19 and you’re nuts at 19 years old,” she said. “I literally drove myself to the doctor, got all this skin removed and that was it. [I] didn’t think much about it.”
Nearly two decades after her first skin cancer diagnosis, Khloé had a “bump” on her face, which she thought was “cystic acne” at first.
“I was convinced it was that cystic pimple. It would not go away. I was trying to pick it, all these things. I think I messed around with it for over a year. I got facials. I would ask this person, that person, no one thought it was weird, it was my same skin color,” she recalled. “I do have a lot of beauty marks all over me, but they’re brown. So I was like, ‘Gosh, maybe this is a skin color mole.’ I didn’t know what it was.”
During one facial treatment, a professional suggested getting a biopsy on it, which Khloé did.
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“So we cut it out and within days they found out it was melanoma. I sent it to my other dermatologist, they analyzed it,” she said. “Because it’s on my face … where my cheek line is, they have to remove the tumor that’s there. You also have to take enough skin, like healthy skin, around it to make sure the cells didn’t spread.”
When it came time for the procedure, Khloé went to a “family friend” who happened to be a plastic surgeon to get it treated.
“He removed the tumor, and the scary part is you don’t know how much they need to remove until they start cutting into you. They think they’re getting all the borders, but then they have to test it,” she reflected. “We did it. Everything was perfect. He got all they needed the first time. So now I don’t have skin cancer.”
