On the Black Friday edition of Live!, Andy Cohen joined Kelly Ripa for co-hosting duties and made a surprising announcement in the process. he revealed his recent melanoma diagnosis and credits Ripa with the discovery: “You and I were at a party for Anderson’s [Cooper] mom in April, and you said, ‘You have a black dot on your lip, I don’t think that’s something good.'”
Not only that, but Ripa and her husband (Mark Consuelos) repeatedly pressured Cohen to investigate the situation rather than remain in denial. When he relented, Cohen was relieved that his friends were pushy with the best of intentions. “It was melanoma and they removed it, and I just want to thank you because you were so dogmatic,” he admitted. “The lip heals very well and I really had a chunk removed out of it.”
Cohen then called himself a “tanorexic” and expressed his love for basking in the sun. He admitted to never thinking he could fall prey to cancer, and now he’s reassessing various habits. Ripa then revealed that Cohen is the third friend she’s spotted skin cancer on, although she doesn’t know if she’d ever recognize it on herself. The reason for that, of course, is that one grows used to gradual changes on one’s own body, whereas a change is much easier to spot on a friend that you haven’t seen for awhile.
Potentially, Ripa may have saved Cohen’s life, for melanoma spreads rapidly and is a highly lethal form of cancer. No excuses … check yo skin.
