Mark Ruffalo
Oscar star kept brain tumor diagnosis secret – for this reason
Sunrise Coigney and Mark Ruffalo
© Amy Sussman/Getty Images
More than 20 years ago, Mark Ruffalo was diagnosed with a brain tumor the size of a golf ball. Wife Sunrise was heavily pregnant at the time. A risk. The Oscar-nominated star remained silent – and now explains his reasons in a podcast.
Mark Ruffalo, 56, is currently on everyone’s lips with his “Poor Things” role of Duncan Wedderburn and can hope for a golden boy as Best Supporting Actor at the 2024 Oscars. His fourth so far. The Hollywood star’s career is constantly on the rise, and since the film “30 Overnight” he has become a critics’ favorite.
But shortly before he became known worldwide with the popular romantic comedy in 2004, his own personal drama unfolded in the actor’s life. In 2000, when wife Sunrise Coigney, 51, was heavily pregnant, the actor was diagnosed with a brain tumor – which he initially kept secret.
Mark Ruffalo dreamed of a brain tumor – and then received the shocking diagnosis
“I had one of those calls at 4 a.m. […] It wasn’t like any dream I’ve had,” recalls Mark Ruffalo in the current episode of the podcast “SmartLess.” In the dream it suddenly said: “You have a brain tumor.” There wasn’t even “a voice.” , but “the pure realization” that he had to take care of it immediately.
Mark Ruffalo did this immediately – and was actually diagnosed with brain cancer. The “only symptoms” he had at that time in early summer 2000 were “an ear infection,” Ruffalo continues.
Ruffalo hid the golf ball-sized tumor from his wife
The doctor treating him at the time said to him after the computer tomography: “You have a mass behind your left ear the size of a golf ball. We don’t know what it is, we can’t tell until it’s biopsied.” An absolute shock.
What’s more: At the time, his wife Sunrise Coigney was nine months pregnant with their first child, their now 22-year-old son Keen. In order not to burden her, Mark Ruffalo initially hid the diagnosis from his wife. It wasn’t until a week after Keenan’s birth in June 2001 that he broke the news to her.
“I always knew you would die young”
“When I told Sunny about it, at first she thought I was joking,” recalls the Hollywood star, and continues: “Then she burst into tears and said, ‘I always knew you would die young’.” Fortunately, Ruffalo’s brain tumor turned out to be benign. However, he suffered permanent damage: Since then, the actor has been “completely deaf” in one ear.
Sources used: usmagazine.com, “SmartLess” podcast, accessed at podcasts.apple.com