Andy Cohen, the host of Watch What Happens Live (WWHL), has recently opened up about how Kelly Ripa saved his life from skin cancer.
On Friday, Cohen told Jenny McCarthy on SiriusXM radio show that Ripa urged him to see a doctor after spotting a suspicious mole on his lip.
Coen recalled, “There was a dot on my lip that I had for a while that I was not paying attention to.” He said he never bothered with a blemish on his lip until meeting Ripa and her husband, Mark, at an art opening for Gloria Vanderbilt one night.
The 51-year-old said, “Kelly came up to me and goes, ‘What’s happening with your lip?’” Cohen continued, “She goes, ‘Get that checked out today. That is skin cancer.’”
Cohen then immediately saw a doctor. He said, “I went and got it checked out. It was malignant melanoma.”
Melanoma is one of the most serious types of skin cancer, which could be caused by exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
Cohen underwent surgery to get the spot removed on his lip. Since then, he said he has been extra careful by avoiding exposure to the sun and sees his dermatologist twice a year.
In 2017, he dropped in on Live with Kelly to thank Ripa for urging him to consult with a dermatologist.
At the time, he said, “I want to say, by the way, that I have to shout you out for something that you don’t know I’m going to shout you out for. But I had this black dot on my bottom lip that you and I were at a party for Anderson [Cooper]‘s mom in April. And you said, ‘You have a black dot on your lip. I don’t think that’s something good.’”
Cohen added. “I just want to thank you because you were so dogmatic. No, honestly. And it’s all fine, but that’s a good friend and it really taught me because I am tanorexic. I love the sun, I really do. But just be careful. And I of course thought that that kind of thing would ever happen to me and it will change my relationship to the sun. But you really helped me out there. And thank you for staying on me.”
