Taylor Swift Reveals Mother's Brain Tumour Diagnosis

BY Sarah MurphyPublished Jan 23, 2020

Taylor Swift has revealed that her mother was recently diagnosed with a brain tumour while she was undergoing chemotherapy for an undisclosed form of cancer.
 
The news broke in an interview with Variety about Swift's upcoming Miss Americana documentary.
 
"While she was going through treatment, they found a brain tumour," Swift said. "And the symptoms of what a person goes through when they have a brain tumour is nothing like what we've ever been through with her cancer before. So it's just been a really hard time for us as a family."
 
It's a major factor in Swift's decision to scrap a world tour for Lover and focus instead on festival dates next summer.
 
"Yeah, that's it. That's the reason," she said. "I mean, we don't know what is going to happen. We don't know what treatment we're going to choose. It just was the decision to make at the time, for right now, for what's going on."
 
Swift added, "I wanted to be able to perform in places that I hadn't performed in as much, and to do things I hadn't done before, like Glastonbury. I feel like I haven't done festivals, really, since early in my career — they're fun and bring people together in a really cool way. But I also wanted to be able to work as much as I can handle right now, with everything that's going on at home. And I wanted to figure out a way that I could do both those things."
 
Her mom's illness isn't a major subject of the upcoming documentary, though. Director Lana Wilson opted instead to include a light-hearted moment about Andrea Swift's decision to get a "cancer dog" and little else.
 
Swift has been famously tight-lipped about her mom's condition in past interviews, though she did address her fears on Lover track "Soon You'll Get Better."
 
Miss Americana premieres tonight at Sundance Film Festival. It will arrive on Netflix on January 31.

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