Jeff Bridges reveals tumor has shrunk, says 'cancer was nothing compared to COVID’

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Jeff Bridges has good news about his health.

In an interview with AARP magazine, the actor revealed that the tumor from his cancer has shrunk "to the size of a marble." 

Bridges was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2020, while on a COVID-19 pandemic mandated break from filming his FX series, "The Old Man."

He first noticed an issue while he was working out.

"I was doing some exercises while on the ground and felt what seemed like a bone in my stomach. I thought to myself, Hmm. But it didn’t hurt or anything. I asked Sue what she thought. She said: ‘I don’t know, but you’ve got to get it checked out.'" he said.

The "Crazy Heart" star shared that, because he wasn’t in pain, he was reluctant to see a doctor, and even took a hiking vacation with his wife, Susan Geston.

Jeff Bridges appeared in the June/July 2023 edition of AARP The Magazine, where he revealed his tumor has shrunk to the "size of marble." (Michael Becker/FX)

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"I’m hiking and feeling great. My shins really itch, and I think, ‘Oh, I just got, you know, dry skin.’ Then I had night sweats, but thought, ‘That’s just hot summer nights.’ It turns out those are lymphoma symptoms."

"I was doing those fight scenes for the first episode of ‘The Old Man’ and didn’t know that I had a 9-by-12-inch tumor in my body," Bridges reflected.

He added, "You’d think that would have hurt or something, when they were punching me and stuff. It didn’t."

Bridges is also on the mend from another scary health battle. 

In 2021, the now 73-year-old contracted COVID-19 and has admitted he came very close to dying due to a weakened immune system from the chemotherapy.

"For me," Bridges told the outlet, "cancer was nothing compared to the COVID."

The "Big Lebowski" star credits his wife, who was also temporarily hospitalized with COVID, for helping him through his five-week hospitalization and long recovery.

Jeff Bridges credits his wife, Susan Geston, with his COVID recovery. The couple have been married for 45 years. (Amy Sussman/WireImage)

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"My wife Sue was my absolute champion," he said. 

"She really fought to keep me off a ventilator. I didn’t want to be on it, and the doctors didn’t necessarily want that. But Sue was adamant."

Recovery took a while for Bridges. The actor noted, "A lot of getting better was a matter of setting really small goals. At first, they’d say, ‘How long can you stand?’ For a while, my record was 45 seconds before I’d collapse. And then they were saying: ‘Oh, look, you’re standing for a minute! That’s so cool, now can you walk 5 feet?’"

One of the goals pushing him forward was walking his youngest daughter, Hayley Roselouise Bridges, down the aisle at her wedding.

Hayley Bridges with her dad Jeff Bridges in 2017. Bridges worked through his COVID recovery to walk her down the aisle at her wedding. (Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for Dom Perignon)

Last year, Bridges told The Independent he worked with a trainer to improve his physicality.

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"Finally, one day I said, ‘Maybe I can do it, you know?’" he recalled. "And it turns out I not only got to walk her down the aisle, but I got to do the wedding dance. That was terrific."

Bridges is also grateful to be back at work this year with his "The Old Man" co-stars. 

Jeff Bridges accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award onstage during the 28th Annual Critics Choice Awards in 2023. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association)

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"I’m so blessed to have this cast," he told AARP, "to talk to and jam with. To get back to doing what invigorates you – it feels great, man."

He concluded, "I’m feeling that the times are demanding us to be as creative as possible. We should all work together to make something beautiful, like we do in the movies."