Gerlinde Kretschmann
That’s how hard she dealt with her cancer diagnosis
Gerlinde and Winfried Kretschmann on the red carpet.
© imago / Sven Simon
At her first appearance since the cancer diagnosis, Gerlinde Kretschmann spoke about her illness and how to deal with it.
In mid-February, the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann (73) and his wife Gerlinde (74) made the former teacher’s breast cancer public. Now the 74-year-old spoke to the magazine “Bunte” in her first public appearance since then about the disease. Accordingly, her therapies have now been completed and she is doing well.
Since she is no longer invited to a preventive check-up at her age, she discovered the cancer only by chance: “When I was at my gynecologist for other reasons in January, she checked me out once and advised me to have my breast examined more closely. Me it quickly became clear what that meant – what else should it be. “
“I can do it!”
However, she was lucky because the tumor was still very small and had not metastasized. “I thought: I can do it!” Said Kretschmann about her combative attitude. After the operation, she received radiation for six weeks, “but luckily no chemotherapy.”
That her husband made the disease public was her request. “I’ve often seen how bad it is when everyone realizes that someone is not doing well and nobody dares to address the issue. I find that degrading.”
Her husband suffered more than she did
Her husband would have been more affected by the disease than she was. “It was really bad for him,” said Kretschmann. “As a victim, you approach challenges very differently, as a relative you are helpless.” Gerlinde Kretschmann is not afraid that cancer will come back: “No, I’m just too optimistic for that.”
Winfried and Gerlinde Kretschmann have been married since 1975 and have three grown children.