Giving an interview to a magazine just days before her death, Jackie revealed her own reasons as to why she not only didn’t tell her family about her diagnosis, but also why she waited two years before seeking a professional opinion, even though she knew something was wrong with her health.
She said: “I thought, ‘I’m not dealing with this’ because in my mind I decided it was benign. I’ve had to deal with losing my mother (to breast cancer), my husband (to prostate cancer) and my fiancé (to lung cancer) and I did not want to put pressure on everybody in the family. So I happily, happily went day by day.
“I know we’re all told to [get checkups], but some of us are too stupid, and I was one of them,” she said in the interview.
“That was my choice and maybe it was a foolish one, but it was my choice. Now I want to tell people it shouldn’t be their choice.”
