Cynthia NixonSex and the City star Cynthia Nixon has revealed she was treated for breast cancer 18 months ago.

She told Good Morning America yesterday that she had gone for a “completely routine mammogram” in 2006 when her doctor called: “She says, ‘Well I have some, it’s not such great news.’”

Cynthia revealed her mum battled the disease twice when Cynthia was a child and that experienced help her with her own diagnosis: “As the daughter of a breast cancer survivor, knowing my personal risk made me more aware and more empowered when I faced my own diagnosis.”

“I felt scared [but] “I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t want this to be happening.’ I was very cognizant of if it’s going to happen, this is the best way for it to happen, that it’s found so early and we can just get right on it.”

She chose to keep the diagnosis private, going as far to schedule surgery for a Sunday so she didn’t have to miss a performance of the theatre production she was working on at the time and because she “didn’t want paparazzi at the hospital” but she and partner Christine Marinoni “made a big point” of telling her two children what was going on: “I basically told them they found some cancer in my right breast.”

“[I told them] ‘It’s very small and it’s very early. I’m going to have an operation, they’re going to take it out, and then we’re going to have six-and-a-half weeks of radiation, every weekday. This is what grandma went through, and I’m going to be fine.’”