The comedian also explained why her voice is now “two octaves higher,” joking that she sounds like “Minnie Mouse meets Marilyn Monroe.”
Kathy Griffin is giving an update on her health.
While appearing on Tuesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the comedian — who first shared her lung cancer diagnosis over the summer — revealed she’s now “cancer free” after having her “left lung removed” in August.
At the beginning of the interview, Griffin, 61, first explained to Jimmy Kimmel and his audience why her voice sounds a little different now.
Kathy Griffin Speaks In First Videos Since Lung Surgery: ‘I Laugh at Everything Now’
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“I had surgery, you’re not going to believe this — so, I’ve never smoked but I got lung cancer. In August, I had half of my left lung removed,” she began. “I’m not even kidding.”
“They put the intubation tube too rough on my vocal cord,” she continued. “So now I’m like Minnie Mouse meets Marilyn Monroe.”
While the Emmy winner noted that her voice “will heal,” she admitted that she’s “sort of enjoying it.” Griffin said she thinks she’s “a good two octaves higher,” joking that her voice is “higher than Mariah Carey.”
After she discussed her new love of Gucci tracksuits, Kimmel then asked if doctors “got all the lung cancer out” — and Griffin shared the good news.
“Yes! So I’m cancer free,” she announced, to which Kimmel’s audience applauded in response. “I don’t know why, I had a tumor, right? And I’ve never smoked, and it was in there for 10 years. So get this, they took it out, and they found it on another scan.”
The “My Life on the D-List” star added that since she’s a comedian her doctor tried out some of his “material” on her.
“So I go in, and here’s the thing: when you’re a comic, it’s horrible when the doctors want to do their material on you,” Griffin said, before recalling, “So no joke. So I go in, and he’s describing how they take half your lung out, and he goes, ‘It’s kind of like a balloon. So we do it laparoscopically and we poke it.’ And then he goes, ‘And when we take it out, it kind of looks like a used condom.’ The doctor! And then he goes, ‘You can use that.'”
“How generous of him. And in a way you just did,” Kimmel quipped in reply, to which Griffin agreed, “I just did … and insurance covered it.”
In early August, the comic revealed she had been diagnosed with stage 1 lung cancer and was going to have surgery on her left lung.
“I’ve got to tell you guys something. I have cancer. I’m about to go into surgery to have half of my left lung removed,” she began. “Yes, I have lung cancer even though I’ve never smoked!”
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Saying the doctors were “very optimistic,” Griffin added that there would “hopefully” be no chemotherapy or radiation required after surgery and she should “have normal function with my breathing.”
“I should be up and running around as usual in a month or less,” she wrote, adding that she can’t wait to “get back to work, making you guys laugh and entertaining you” and saying, “I’m gonna be just fine.”
Following the surgery, the actress shared on Instagram that the procedure was “a little more than I had anticipated,” but said she thought she would “be okay.” A rep for Griffin told PEOPLE that “everything went well” during her surgery.
A few days later, Griffin appeared to be in good spirits amid her recovery, posting a pair of videos on Instagram. In both clips, she’s seen laughing and keeping things cheery as she explained how her recovery was going so far at home. Check out the videos, here.
