Longest-running American soap opera actor reveals cancer diagnosis

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https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...205932249.html

Brittany Miller
Thu, October 30, 2025 at 1:59 PM PDT
3 min read

Suzanne Rogers, better known as Maggie Horton on Days of Our Lives, has revealed she was diagnosed with cancer over the summer.

In an interview with TV Insider published Thursday, Rogers said she is preparing to return to the Peacock show she has spent 52 years on following treatment.

She recalled first receiving her diagnosis, telling the publication that she noticed something “wasn’t quite right” and quickly booked an appointment with her doctor, who sent her for a colonoscopy.

After a surgeon saw her results, he instructed her to get an MRI, a PET scan and a biopsy. “And the minute he said that I knew that it was something more,” Rogers said.

Following another procedure, it was discovered that she had stage two colorectal cancer.

“He said, ‘You have cancer and you have to start treatment,’” Rogers recalled. “It was all a shock. I mean, I think I was in a shock for several days because I take pretty good care of myself. But he said, ‘It’s a good thing you caught it in time.’”

The actor began treatment in June, just a few days after wrapping scenes on Days of Our Lives.

“It was radiation every day and chemo every day for six weeks, and it was tough,” she said. “It was tough knowing you had to do it five days a week, and then you had off Saturday and Sunday. I thoroughly enjoyed my weekends because I didn’t have to go to and see a doctor. I was so tired of seeing doctors.”

Fortunately, the show was in the middle of a six-week break as she started cancer treatment. Without having family in the Los Angeles area to offer physical support, she largely relied on her co-stars to help her out, including Linsey Godfrey, who played her daughter on the show and is a cancer survivor herself.

The show’s producers also made sure to constantly call her to remind her that her job would still be waiting for her when she got back.

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Rogers fully completed cancer treatment on July 31 as she prepares to return to set following her break.

“I’m feeling really good,” she told TV Insider. “I start back to work next week, so we’ll see how that goes. Now, I’m feeling anxious like I do any time I get scripts, because I want to do my very best, and you don’t want to hold up anybody. So that’s the only anxiousness I feel. It’s not because of my illness, let’s put it that way.”

As Days of Our Lives is currently 10 months ahead in production, there will be a portion of time in 2026 when Rogers’ character is not on-screen.

Days of Our Lives is available to stream on Peacock.