Jeff Bridges has given fans an update on his health in a recent interview and it sounds like good news.
The actor revealed that he'd been diagnosed with cancer back in 2020 as he posted on Instagram that 'new s**t has come to light' and he had lymphoma.
He'd been doing some exercises during a break from filming The Old Man during the pandemic when he 'felt what seemed like a bone in my stomach'.
Bridges told AARP that at the time he wasn't too worried because he wasn't feeling pain from it, though his wife Sue urged him to get it checked out.
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Later while out hiking, he felt his shins itching and when trying to sleep he had night sweats, which Bridges put down to dry skin and hot summer nights, but later learned were symptoms of lymphoma.
When he did visit a doctor he was told he had a large tumour in his body that was 12 inches long.
He went into chemotherapy to treat his cancer and to make matters worse while his immune system was at its most vulnerable he contracted the coronavirus.
"I got this letter from the chemo place informing me I had contracted Covid. I had no immune system to fight it. Chemo had wiped that out, which made it really, really tough," he told AARP, as the disease left him unable to move or breathe without an oxygen supply.
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"For me, cancer was nothing compared to the Covid. I remember the doctor saying to me, ‘Jeff, you’ve got to fight. You’re not fighting.’ But I didn’t get it anymore.
"I just didn’t know how to do that. I was in surrender mode. I’d say to myself, ‘everybody dies, and this is me dying'. And I’d hear myself go, ‘oh, well, here we are, on to the next adventure'."
The actor said he survived by 'giving in to love', as well as thanks to the 'spectacular' work from nurses and doctors treating him.
While he recovered from Covid his cancer treatment also helped reduce the size of the tumour significantly.
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What had been something with the dimensions of 12 inches by nine inches is now 'the size of a marble' according to Bridges.
He'd previously offered an update to fans in 2021 telling them that the tumour had 'drastically shrunk'.
The 73-year-old recently won the Lifetime Achievement award at the Critics Choice Awards, being honoured for his decades of work in acting as he's spent over 50 years in front of the camera.
At the same ceremony he was nominated for the Best Actor in a Drama Series award for his work on the show The Old Man, where he plays a former CIA operative who goes on the run.
Joe Harker