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Fran Drescher opened up about the lasting impact of her brutal 1985 attack and rape, sharing that she didn't "completely unpack" the trauma
The Nanny alum, 68, told Ted Danson on the SiriusXM podcast, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, that the trauma "created a cancer within me"
She shared that she now processes pain, finding strength in "allowing yourself to feel"
Fran Drescheris reflecting on her mind-body connection, specifically the theory that unresolved trauma she has carried may have played a part in heruterine cancer.
"I think that the mind [and] body is connected. There's nothing that's autonomous from the other,"The Nanny, alum, 68, told hostTed Dansonon the Feb. 17 episode of SiriusXM'sWhere Everybody Knows Your Namepodcast.
She went on to share that her illness may have stemmed from unresolved trauma from a brutal 1985 assault. "I was in my condo with my girlfriend andPeter [Marc Jacobson], my husband at the time, when two men broke in with guns and raped me and my girlfriend and stole everything and left. Thank God [they] left us alive, even though at the time you really don't know whether you're gonna get through this or not," Drescher said of the incident, which she first wrote about in her 1996 autobiographyEnter Whining."By the grace of God, they were apprehended and put in jail."
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While having some justice gave her "closure," Drescher said rape is something that "shatters you in a very profound way." The crime left her unable to feel "fearless," saying, "I'm always a little anxious or nervous or fearful," explaining she carries a protective alarm at all times.
"I have a big dog that's very protective of me, and that helps me to function in a very good way. It manifests differently in everybody, but that was kind of how it manifested in me," she said.
But while Drescher found ways to adjust to the ever-present state of fear, she explains, "I didn't really completely unpack what I was feeling. I just sort of went back to my life and let these residual neuroses kind of begin to rule me."
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Drescher referred to her 2000 diagnosis of uterine cancer, adding, "I always felt like because I really didn't deal with the rape in a very healthy way, it created a cancer within me and poetically in my reproductive [organs]."
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Researchers have explored the link. According to a study in theNational Library of Medicine, "Stress plays a positive role in cancer initiation, progression and cancer metastasis, a negative role for anti-tumor immune function and therapy response." Stress can also trigger "unhealthy behaviours such as eating and drinking alcohol to excess, smoking, abusing drugs or being physically inactive" — things which have been linked to cancer.
Drescher went on to explain that understanding the connection between mental and physical health changed how she processed trauma, telling Danson, "It got me on a path of feeling my pain much more so than I used to. I used to kind of put it away and just get on with things and thought that that was a sign of strength."
"But in fact, really strength is to lean into your pain," she said, "to allow yourself to feel your pain."
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go torainn.org.
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