Mark Hoppus 'really thought he was going to die' after cancer diagnosis: 'It was so freeing..'M

Yahoo

08-04-2025

Mark Hoppus found his cancer diagnosis to be "so freeing". The 53-year-old musician - who is best known as a founding member of the rock band Blink-182 - was diagnosed with a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in June 2021 and underwent a bout of treatment before being given the all-clear but admitted that he "really thought" he was going to die but had somewhat accepted it in a way. He told The Guardian: "I really thought I was going to die. 'And, in a way, it absolutely was so freeing. I'd spent my whole life hypervigilant, thinking: what's the worst thing that could happen? And, oh, it's here now, I'm dealing with it and it still sucks." The 'All the Small Things' hitmaker - who is currently part of the band alongside Tom DeLong and Travis Barker - admitted that he was "crushed" during the "physical pain and exhaustion" of his treatment, but reflected that the whole ordeal had allowed him to rekindle friendships that had fallen by the wayside. He said: "The physical pain and exhaustion of the chemo, mixed with the steroids and all the other drugs, just crushed me for months on end. But it brought back friendships that I hadn't had in years. It healed my friendship with Tom: from day one, he was like: 'What do you need? I'm there.' In that friendship and the love and support of people around me, I thought: you know what? I've had a pretty awesome life." After learning of his cancer diagnosis, Mark had tried to keep his illness private but then accidentally shared a photo of himself during chemotherapy with his 1.6 million Instagram followers when it was meant to go to his family WhatsApp group, but admitted that was the "best mistake" he has ever made because it allowed others to offer him support. He said: The best mistake I've ever made, by far [was accidentally publish that photo] . 'I suffered alone in silence for so long because I thought that, once it came out I had cancer, people's opinions of me would change. Just generally in life, I felt that when people get sick or injured in some way they get left behind, like: 'OK, you're over here now in a different category.' But I was wrong.' "All these people who were fighters and winners, who overcame their cancer. "That helped. I was finally able to say: 'Yeah. I'm f****** scared, but, you know, I try to put on a brave face.'"