Amanda Peet is reaching out to her friends, neighbors, and family for support. Just days after the "Dirty John" alum revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, she shared how her and husband David Benioff's children—Frances, 19, Molly, 15, and Henry, 11—have coped with the health update. "They've been great," Amanda told E! News' Will Marfuggi in an exclusive interview, noting that she needed to be in the right mindset before sharing the news with them. "I definitely had to get myself together before including them."
The 54-year-old added, "The hard part was realizing that nothing is certain and there was going to be no perfect time to tell them." In her March 21 essay published in The New Yorker, Amanda shared that her cancer was hormone-receptor-positive and HER2-negative, meaning it was less aggressive and often easier to treat than more aggressive forms of breast cancer. She also noted that she would "only need a lumpectomy and radiation," not a double mastectomy.
Although Amanda is grateful to have her children by her side during her diagnosis, she admitted that they are still typical kids. In fact, the "Your Friends & Neighbors" actress—who stars in season two of the Apple TV show, premiering April 3—said her children often tell her, "What you do is so weird." This was how they reacted when she tried to show them "Something's Gotta Give," the 2003 film she starred in with Jack Nicholson and the late Diane Keaton.
"I was like, 'I really want you to see this. This was a huge moment in my career,'" she explained. "They watched five minutes of it and saw me with Jack Nicholson—I think I straddle him at one point—and they turned it off. They were like, 'This is reprehensible. This is ethically dubious, and we're out.'"
However, Amanda recently turned a corner with her daughters during a different bonding moment, noting they started to steal clothes out of her closet. "For so long, it was like, 'What are you wearing, mom? Why are you so uncool?'" she shared. "And then all of a sudden, I was like, 'Oh, look at you. Look who's coming in my closet.'"
