Christian LeBlanc Explains Months-Long Absence From 'The Young and the Restless'
Christian LeBlanc
Christian LeBlanc opened up about his months-long absence from The Young and the Restless in a heartbreaking new interview.
While speaking with CBS affiliate 4WWL in New Orleans, the 65-year-old actor revealed that his prolonged absence is due to a recent cancer diagnosis.
According to statements made by LeBlanc, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that develops in plasma cells in the bone marrow, back in June.
"I'd never spent a day in the hospital in my 65 years until this year," he said during the first public conversation regarding the diagnosis. "It's a common cancer but a very fast-moving one."
LeBlanc went on to share some of the symptoms he experienced that suggested he may have something going on with his health and leading him to get diagnosed, including losing nearly 35 pounds quickly and without trying.
"I put on [my character] Michael [Baldwin]'s wedding ring and I put my hand down and the ring fell off without friction. I said, 'What an odd thing,'" he recalled.
LeBlanc explained that there were other signs, including random nose bleeds on set and problems with his eyes, that even viewers picked up on.
"My eye kind of got a little wonky," he shared, citing the issues as cause for him to visit his ophthalmologist, who discovered LeBlanc had a tumor in his sinus cavity and pressuring his optic nerve.
"The fans caught it," LeBlanc continued, "I was getting people like, 'Your eye is a little Jim Carrey that way, a little Michael this way."
Thankfully, it appears as though LeBlanc and his team of doctors caught the cancer in time for it to respond well to immunotherapy treatment, as the actor shared that five months after his diagnosis, he's in remission.
Now, he said, he's focusing on regaining his strength and the weight he lost earlier this year.
"[My doctors] said, 'Eat like it's your job,' and I said, 'I was raised to fulfill this promise," he quipped, joking about his birthplace inspiring a love for food and eating. "Louisiana, New Orleans, easily done.'"
As for his return to The Young and the Restless, well, fans won't have to wait that long as he teased he's making a comeback just in time for the series' Thanksgiving episode.
Next: 'The Young and the Restless' Star Eric Braeden Gives a Cancer Update
