Australian comedian will be having a double mastectomy.

Australian comedian Judith Lucy has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

She broke the news in a post on Instagram today titled: ‘So I have cancer’, in which she told her followers that she would be undergoing a double mastectomy.

In the accompanying video, the 58-year-old said: ‘Hi Australia, a little not-so-fun update from me.Three weeks ago . . . I got an email from BreastScreen Australia telling me that my mammogram result was a bit weird.

‘May I take this opportunity to say, ladies, for the love of God, keep up with your mammograms. Anyway, long story short, I’ve got breast cancer.’

She explained that the cancer was in its early stages and was non-aggressive, but that she would be having the operation.

And she added: ‘I went in last Friday for a lumpectomy and a doctor called – I’m not making this up – Doctor Fun found more cancer.

‘Dr Fun is amazing, I am in her debt, but we have gone from a lumpectomy to a mastectomy on Friday week. I said, "While you’re there, let’s get rid of the other one." 

‘Because if I do say so myself, I have had 40 years of large and spectacular breasts. You had your chance fellas. So I think I’m quite fine with going bra-free for my last chapter – and my last chapter is going to be very long and healthy.’

She ended the video saying: ‘I really am okay… I’m in shock but I’m okay.’

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Perth-born Lucy began performing stand-up in 1989 and rose to prominence down under in 1993 as a cast member of ABC TV’s The Late Show. She later presented on Triple J and, in 2004, became co-host of Sydney’s 2DAY-FM breakfast show, where she was sacked a year later, an experience she turned into the tour I Failed. 

She created the ABC series Judith Lucy’s Spiritual Journey and Judith Lucy Is All Woman, and wrote the memoir The Lucy Family Alphabet and, with an irony she acknowledged, the newly released Well Well Well about her 'wellness odyssey'.

Lucy performed several times at the Edinburgh Fringe in the 1990s and often toured with Denise Scott and previously with Linda Gibson as well. Scott was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, and recently completed her treatment, while Gibson died of ovarian cancer in 2004, at the age of 47, four years after being diagnosed.

Lucy stepped back from stand-up in 2022, saying that although she found writing comedy a ‘cathartic’ way to deal with life she wanted to get away from ‘the constant anxiety, the self-medicating and the grind of touring…I just don’t want to live like that any more.’

She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours for ‘significant service to the performing arts as an entertainer’.

Published: 6 Oct 2026