Jill kargman drew barrymore

Odd Mom Out star Jill Kargman said that undergoing a preventative double mastectomy earlier this year was a no-brainer for her — but she was glad to have friends like Drew Barrymore to help her get through it.

The year-old, who starred in the three-season Bravo show adapted from her book Momzillas, first divulged her decision to get the surgery earlier this year after genetic testing revealed a mutation that would increase her risk of cancer.

Now, the New York City mom has told SurvivorNet about the loved ones who supported her through the tough time, including how her famous ex-sister-in-law made sure she was OK.

Scroll down for video 

Though the surgery wasn't medically necessary, Jill opted to have both of her breasts removed to lower her risk of getting breast cancer, which is elevated because of a genetic mutation.

The surgery requires quite a bit of rest, care, and follow-up appointments, and Drew, 43, repeatedly checked up on Jill through the process.

'The summer when I had my surgery, [Drew] was really, really there for me.

And even when she had to go to L.A., she would send flowers every week, and text me and check in on me.

'And those kids of relationships… it just made me feel so taken care of,' she said, adding that other friends came to sit with her and her mom visited to make her lunch.

Jill and Drew appear to have remained close even though Drew and Jill's brother, Will Kopelman, have divorced.

Drew and Will also have two daughters together, Jill's nieces.

'She's my sister-in-law and even though they're splitting up, she's always my sister,' Jill told E! in  

Speaking to People, she added that Drew is still 'one of my best friends,' saying: 'It’s family first; you divorce spouses, but not family.'

So it's natural that Drew was so supportive during Jill's tough time, which began before she actually went under the knife.

Jill was getting her routine mammogram this year when doctors found two lumps that were 'pre-cancer' and sent her for several MRIs.

'Between my second and third breast MRIs, I decided to get genetic counseling at Sloan Kettering,' she told SurvivorNet. 'And they called me and said, "It turns out you have CHEK2," which is another breast cancer gene.

'So if BRCA A and B have an 85 per cent chance that you’ll get breast cancer, mine is a 65 per cent chance.' 

Jill wasn't playing around, since this wasn't even her first cancer square.

When she was 34, she noticed that a mole on her skin was bleeding and consulted her doctor — a man who dismissed her concerns as 'hysterical'.

After she switched to a female physician, she was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer called amelanotic melanoma, and had surgery to remove lymph nodes.

So now, learning that her risk of more cancer was elevated, she did all she could to stop it.

'People keep saying to me, "That must have been such a brave, scary decision," and I said, not at all, I didn't even think about it.

It was a no brainer.

I felt like there was no way that I was gonna stay and wait for some diagnosis down the road,' she said.

'I have new boobs,' she added. 'They look really fake, but who cares? Kept my nips. I look like my old self again. Not my year-old saggy boob self, but my year-old self.' 

Jill has opened up about her mastectomy before.

In August, she wrote an essay for Tablet magazine, in which she discussed not just the surgery but the anti-Semitism that her young son Fletch faced at St. Bernard's School in New York City while she was recovering.

She said she was still hooked up to drainage tubes when Fletch came home on the verge of tears and told her about a classmate's who had said, 'I'm a fan of Hitler!

God sent Hitler down to kill the Jews because they nailed Jesus to the cross!'

This wasn't the first time that boy had made an anti-Semitic remark. When Fletch said he wasn't blown away by Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular, the classmate responded, 'You just didn’t get it because you are a Jew and the show is made for Christians.' 

This time around, Jill was 'running on Tylenol and sheer rage' and wasn't about to let the hateful comment go.

She and her husband told the school they were 'furious'.

The school put together a disciplinary committee, and ended up punishing the child by excluding him from two field trips.

Jill did not think this punishment was enough, and what's more, the offending child ended up only being pulled from one field trip.

'We found the whole episode extremely upsetting and I found myself — a generally very happy person — in a dark spiral of anguish for a month,' she said.

So she took matters into her own hands.

After leaving Mount Sinai hospital, where she'd had her drains removed, she bought several books about the Holocaust to sent to the boy's family with a note reading: 'We thought this would prove valuable reading for your family. Best, the Kargmans.' 

Ultimately, unsatisfied with the way her son's school handled hateful, racist remarks, she and her husband enrolled him in a new school this September.

At the time, a spokesperson for the school told that St. Bernard's 'condemns' anti-Semitism and insisted that it 'does not tolerate racism, religious or sexual discrimination, or bigotry or any kind', and that Jill's essay 'does not accurately or fully describe the underlying facts' of the incident in question.

Share or comment on this article: Jill Kargman says Drew Barrymore was 'really there for me' following preventative double mastectomy

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.