Alicia Witt Gives Cancer Battle Update 1 Year After Parents' Sudden Death

April 2024 · 4 minute read

All about the silver lining. Alicia Witt is celebrating her hair growth after finishing up treatment amid her battle with breast cancer. 

“I don’t mean for this to be a vanity post! but – i do want to share because i know that there are a lot of you here who have gone through the same,” Witt, 47, wrote via Instagram on Monday, December 5. “And i’m honestly feeling pretty elated about the state of my hair right now.” 

The Hallmark actress, who recently underwent a round of chemotherapy followed by a unilateral mastectomy, shared that it was a “gift” to keep “enough to my hair to continue working through my treatments.” 

Crediting the “privilege” of continuing her work to Penguin Cold Caps, Witt also revealed that while “45% or so” of her hair “did fall out,” a variety of vegan hair thickening products helped her locks return looking better than ever. 

“I am Not being paid to share this – I don’t do paid posts, but I want to let you know I feel this works, and works big time and quickly,” she penned in her Monday post. “i believe this would help anyone who’s looking to thicken their hair – regardless of whether you’d gone thru chemo-related hair loss. sending you love!  🌹.”

Witt has had a difficult year. In June, the Dune star opened up about quietly undergoing cancer treatments and why she chose to keep her health struggles private. 

“For me, this was such a needed part of my healing – particularly given the horribly public tragedy that had happened in our family just as i was beginning my treatments,” she explained via Instagram at the time. 

Four months prior to revealing her diagnosis, the Walking Dead alum announced that a relative found her parents, Robert and Diane Witt, dead after performing a wellness check at their home. 

According to reports, the residence was visited by the fire department to check on the home’s air quality, but firefighters found no evidence of carbon monoxide or other dangerous gases. Alicia’s cousin called the police for help after the actress grew concerned for her parents, whom she hadn’t heard from in “several days.”

“I reached out to a cousin who lives close to my parents to check on them. Sadly, the outcome was unimaginable,” the Massachusetts native said in a statement at the time. “I ask for some privacy at this time to grieve and to wrap my head around this turn of events, and this surreal loss.”

In January, the Twin Peaks alum took to social media to break her silence surrounding the shocking loss.  

“It’s been a month since I got scared, not having heard back from them, and called to have them checked on, waiting, phone in hand, praying fervently that the next call would be from them, angry I’d gotten someone else involved,” she wrote at the time. “I am deeply grateful for the gift of having been able to quietly travel to Worcester earlier this month for a beautiful service and burial, to mourn and to celebrate them in total privacy. … Thank you, also, to all those who have reached out with your memories about my parents. They were brilliant educators, deeply kind, curious, intuitive, wise, young at heart, funny — there will never be enough adjectives to describe them.”

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She continued, “They were a united, intertwined, indivisible force, determined to do things their own way. Knowing they had each other — battling them the way I would have had to in order to do this truly felt like it would have destroyed them. My heart is broken. And even if I could have had a crystal ball and looked into the future — if I could have said to them, ‘You are going to break my heart and the hearts of all who love you with a worst-case-scenario ending if you don’t let us help you’ — I still think they would have made the same choices.”

One month later, Us Weekly confirmed that Robert and Diane died from “probable cardiac dysrhythmia” due to the cold weather. They were 87 and 75, respectively.

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