NewsNation’s daytime anchor Nichole Berlie announced to viewers in December 2023 live on the air that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time of her announcement, she informed the audience that, as she goes for treatment, she will cut her hair ahead of potentially losing it and that she will keep working.
“I am going to look very different,” she said. “It’s going to be a big change, but it’s only hair and it will grow back. The important thing is that I beat this.”
In a profile piece in The Los Angeles Times, Berlie talked about how she has been handling her treatment while still anchoring the news at NewsNation, opening up that the experience of losing her long hair was “anxiety-inducing.”
“It was coming out so rapidly,” she said. “Shaving it — that was nothing. It was almost a relief.”
Executives at NewsNation had her back with her decision to go bald, with Michael Corn, president of news programming, saying, “Her going on the air bald takes a lot of courage.”
He added, “I didn’t know how the audience would react, but I also didn’t care. I knew it was something Nichole wanted to do in terms of being authentic about what she was experiencing right now.”
The Times piece also talks about what initially happened when Berlie resumed her anchoring duties, with crew members wearing masks to protect her compromised immune system. The studio also refrained from doing a sweeping shot before commercial breaks, but as the anchor became more comfortable with her look, that changed. Sometimes, she even went on the air without using powder, saying, “Let it shine.”
In another story, Berlie told People that she has undergone three chemo treatments so far with five more to go. Since her diagnosis, she has joined two cancer support groups and also goes for therapy.
She added that her faith and her internal voice are keeping her strong and positive.
“I went through so much testing, just like weeks of constant turmoil and mental chaos and just this voice or this feeling just came over me like, ‘It’s going to be okay.’ It changed everything for me,” Berlie said. “And I do feel like it’s going to be okay. I know that I have the strength from within. And I think, for me, that has been the biggest change.”
Berlie is not the only news anchor currently dealing with breast cancer. Earlier this year, CNN News Central anchor Sara Sidner announced her breast cancer diagnosis, which was stage 3. She, too, will continue working while going for treatment.
She noted that stage 3 breast cancer was “not a death sentence anymore for the vast majority of women,” and she was shocked to learn that Black women are 41% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women.
With an urgent message to female viewers, Sidner said, “So to all my sisters, Black and white and brown out there, please, for the love of God, get your mammograms every single year. Do your self-exams. Try to catch it before I did.”