Best known for her role as Robin Scherbatsky in the comedy series "How I Met Your Mother," Cobie Smulders said that she underwent surgery at 25 years old for ovarian cancer. "I had tumors on both ovaries, and the cancer had spread into my lymph nodes and surrounding tissues," the actress revealed in Women's Health Magazine's May issue.
The "Avengers" actress further revealed that she doesn't feel she will be "cancer-free," despite managing to beat the disease. "Now that I'm five years out, I'm trying to think of it as a positive thing and what can I learn from it. And if I can create more awareness, I'll do it," she said.
The actress also agreed to her very first topless photo shoot for the magazine. "Because it's a women's magazine, I feel like being topless is more about being confident and about being happy with your body rather than trying to excite somebody else," she said. "That's what this cover was more about."
For two years, the Canadian actress weathered the cancer with the help of Taran Killam, her husband. She was also able to give birth to two children, Shaelyn, who was born in 2009, and a newborn, whom she gave birth to in January of this year.
Smulders has never talked about this health scare until this magazine feature and said that because of her experience, her views in life have changed. She no longer puts energy into getting stressed out. Smulder joins actress Angelina Jolie and Rita Wilson who also made their cancer battles public in the hopes of raising awareness.
The Ovarian Cancer National Alliance said that more than 14,000 women have died from the disease, with new cases estimated to grow to 21,980 this year.
