In her latest interview with Variety, Taylor Swift shared some incredibly sad news: Her mom, Andrea, was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. Swift revealed her mom was receiving treatment for cancer several years ago, without specifying the type; the cancer subsequently returned a second time, and Andrea underwent chemotherapy as filming took place for Swift's upcoming Netflix documentary, Miss Americana. The brain tumor was discovered "while she was going through treatment," Swift said.
Swift confirmed her limited tour for latest album Lover—she'll play four stadiums in the U.S., and festivals including Glastonbury across Europe—was planned to enable her to stay close to her mom. "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," she told Variety. "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."
"I mean, we don’t know what is going to happen," Swift continued. "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."
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Swift, who sang about her mom's illness in the gorgeous Lover track "Soon You'll Get Better," told the magazine, "Everyone loves their mom; everyone’s got an important mom." She continued, "But for me, she’s really the guiding force. Almost every decision I make, I talk to her about it first. So obviously it was a really big deal to ever speak about her illness."
Andrea's brain tumor was a horrifying development. "And the symptoms of what a person goes through when they have a brain tumor is nothing like what we’ve ever been through with her cancer before," Swift said. "So it’s just been a really hard time for us as a family." Sending Andrea, Taylor, and the Swift family all of our love.
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Emily Dixon is a British journalist who’s contributed to CNN, Teen Vogue, Time, Glamour, The Guardian, Wonderland, The Big Roundtable, Bust, and more, on everything from mental health to fashion to political activism to feminist zine collectives. She’s also a committed Beyoncé, Kacey Musgraves, and Tracee Ellis Ross fan, an enthusiastic but terrible ballet dancer, and a proud Geordie lass.
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