Actor and comedian Magda Szubanski has spoken about her recent cancer journey, telling the ABC’s 7.30 that she was surprised by the outpouring of support she received from the Australian public.
“I was really blown away by it, and at such a dark time, to just feel that tsunami of love was an extraordinary feeling,” Szubanski told host Sarah Ferguson.
The comedian was discussing her new memoir, I Can’t Tell You But I Will, which follows her previous work, Reckoning. While the first book explored her relationship with her father, the new memoir focuses more closely on her mother, Margaret.
In the book, she writes with searing honesty about her complicated relationship with her dying mother. As Szubanski stepped into the fight for marriage equality in Australia, she was also confronting the heartbreak of her mother’s decline.
Szubanski explained that she had begun writing the new book before her 2025 cancer diagnosis. After eight months of treatment for stage four mantle cell lymphoma, she has announced that she is in remission. During her treatment, she continued working on the memoir.
After her mother passed away, Szubanski learned that she had experienced significant trauma in her youth. The revelation prompted her to re-evaluate the way she viewed her mother and the many decades of interactions they shared. She also revealed that keeping her sexuality a secret from her family had played a role in their fractured relationship.
Szubanski said the book also documents her decision to publicly come out and campaign for marriage equality, and describes the opposition campaign as “nasty”.
“It got nasty. It’s not just that you’re speaking on behalf of a vulnerable community. The opposition played so dirty, there was kind of nothing they would say or do, or lie about,” the actor said.
Looking ahead, Szubanski said she wants to focus on fun and bringing people together, adding that the marriage equality campaign taught her the importance of finding common ground.
I Can’t Tell You But I Will is published by Text Publishing and available now.
