Mark Hoppus has revealed how his accidental cancer announcement was a blessing in disguise.
The Blink-182 frontman had been undergoing chemotherapy for three months for aggressive form of blood cancer, when he accidentally posted a photo of himself in treatment to Instagram Stories.
The post, made in 2021, was meant to go to his ‘close friends’ only – but the punk singer had chosen the wrong setting.
At the time, he quickly deleted the post and hoped it would ‘go away’ – but in the end, the world finding out was for the best, he told The Project on Wednesday.
‘Actually I posted on Instagram when getting my chemotherapy and I said one cancer treatment, please. And I posted it to close friends and family, I thought, but I was wrong’ he explained.
Mark says his phone began ‘blowing up’ – and he knew he’d reached the point of no return.
Mark Hoppus has revealed how his accidental cancer announcement was a blessing in disguise. He quickly deleted the Instagram post and hoped it would ‘go away’ – but in the end, the world finding out was for the best, he told The Project on Wednesday (pictured)
But it turned out for the best, the star says, because he had begun giving up hope – and the public gave him the strength he needed to fight.
‘The outpouring of support that I got took me from, “this might take me” to “this might take me, but I am going to go out fighting”‘ he said.
‘I’m glad it came out that way. That was my third round of chemotherapy, and I was despondent at that point.’
Mark recently got candid about his cancer battle as he revealed that he was not going to make it out alive.
The 53-year-old bassist and vocalist -who recently made a bizarre claim about the capture of Saddam Hussein – revealed that he had the dark realization that he had to ‘mentally prepare’ for his family to move on without him.
The punk rocker was recently on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X where he got candid about getting chemotherapy during his battle with the devastating disease.
Mark explained: ‘It was brutal. It was awful. My form of cancer… My doctor told me, the good news is that I had a 60% chance of getting through it and never having to deal with it again.
‘But the bad part was that the chemo is one of the worst that you could undergo. And I did, I had all the stuff. I was sick, my hair fell out. It was bad. I don’t recommend it. Zero out of five stars.’
The Blink-182 frontman had been undergoing chemotherapy for three months for aggressive form of blood cancer, when he accidentally posted a photo of himself in treatment (pictured) to Instagram Stories
The What’s My Age Again hitmaker said that he was grateful that the chemo process helped ‘save’ him despite how tough it was before he was asked how taxing it was for him mentally.
Mark replied: ‘Oh yeah. It got pretty dark. And this is a morning radio show, and everybody’s driving to work or whatever, but yeah. It was pretty dark. It was awful. And I really thought that I wasn’t going to make it.
‘I thought I was on the wrong side of that 60%, and I was mentally preparing for, you know, my family moving on, and what my wife was going to do after I was gone, and who was going to help raise my son and all that kind of stuff. So, to be here with you all today, and to sit next to Captain Crapbeard is a dream come true!’
The Adam’s Song singer’s health has been on an upswing in recent years and he is grateful that his cancer had not spread nor has it come back.
Mark explained: ‘I’m healthy, I’m well. I don’t even have to get scanned anymore, touch wood. I had to get scanned every six months for years. And you know, every time you go in, you’re like, “Oh, it’s definitely back. Oh, this is definitely coming back bad.”
‘But I talked to my oncologist a couple months ago and I said, “Well, when do I get scanned again?” Then he was like, “No, you’re cool.” My oncologist is so chill the whole time about everything. He was like, “No, you’re fine.” Like, when I was when I was in remission, and my first cancer scan came back clear, I was like, “Well, what do I do now?” And he’s like, “Go live your life.”‘
Mark’s cancer battle did help some of his relationships. The star repaired his fractured friendship with bandmate Tom DeLonge, who left and rejoined the group several times due to disagreement with their image as the ‘naked band’.
The singer made his cancer treatment public when he accidentally sent a photo of himself on a chemo drip to his Instagram Stories in June 2021.
But it turned out for the best, the star says, because he had begun giving up hope – and the public gave him the strength he needed to fight
‘The outpouring of support that I got took me from, “this might take me” to “this might take me, but I am going to go out fighting”‘ he said
Mark now considers this ‘the best mistake’ he has ever made as it meant he was no longer suffering in silence.
He was declared cancer free in September 2021 and said he would continue to be screened every six moths in case it returns.
The performer previously spoke about his health battle in detail on a Twitch stream.
‘My classification is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma stage four-A, which means, as I understand it, it’s entered four different parts of my body,’ he said.
‘I don’t know how exactly they determine the four-part of it, but it’s entered enough parts of my body that I’m stage four, which I think is the highest that it goes. So, I’m stage four-A.’
He initially confirmed his diagnosis in a June 23 tweet, saying, ‘It sucks and I’m scared, and at the same time I’m blessed with incredible doctors and family and friends to get me through this.’
Mark previously told People that going through ‘chemotherapy was brutal,’ as he ‘had the worst brain fog’ and was sapped of his energy and ‘ended up being on the couch just trying to get through the day.’
He recalled: ‘We were sitting at dinner with friends that we’ve known for years, and I’m looking at the husband across the table, thinking to myself, “I can’t remember your first name.” And it was like that all the time. I still feel it once every couple days – I’ll forget a word – but it’s much better.’
He told the outlet he was ‘doing good’ and ‘in a much better place’ in the near-year after he was given a clean bill of health.
‘I feel like I have a second shot at life,’ he said.
He was declared cancer free in September 2021 and said he would continue to be screened every six moths in case it returns
