Off The Record

Kate Walsh From Grey’s Anatomy, Shares The “Subtle” Warning Signs She Noticed Before She Was Diagnosed With A Brain Tumor

Published on March 3, 2025

Kate Walsh, star of Grey’s Anatomy, has talked candidly about the signs of her brain tumor that she observed prior to receiving a diagnosis.

Walsh has been well-known for decades, most notably for his role as Addison Montgomery in the popular medical drama.

With roles in shows including Emily in Paris, 13 Reasons Why, The Umbrella Academy, and Bad Judge, Walsh has played a variety of roles throughout the years, including deranged, grieving over the death of a child, fashionista, and more.

They might not have realized, however, that Walsh was afflicted with a benign brain tumor at the time of several of those performances.

In an interview with The Kelly Clarkson Show, the 57-year-old talked candidly about her health and her 2015 diagnosis.

“Thankfully, it turned out to be benign, so I was very, very fortunate,” Walsh said.

She continued, nonetheless, by stating that there were “very subtle” warning indications prior to the diagnosis of her tumor.

The Californian revealed that others close to her thought she was just “depressed” because of her job.

The actor explained: “I know how important it is to advocate for one’s own health because people were like, ‘You’re just depressed.’ It was right after [my TV show] Bad Judge got canceled.’”

She said that people would say to her: “Your show got canceled. You’re just depressed.”

But she would respond back: “I’m like, ‘No, something’s off.’”

She initially claimed that she was tired before her coordination started to suffer.

“It was like, ‘Hey, I’m really tired,’” Walsh shared. “And then it’s like, ‘Oh, the right side of my body is dipping.’”

She started making excuses for her new difficulties since she saw others around her dismissing her.

Walsh recalled: “They’re like, ‘Oh, you’re off.’ I’m like, ‘No,’ and then, walking the dog, I’m like, ‘It must be a little bit of a windy street.’”

Before seeking medical attention, she thought she had Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) because she “can’t really focus” and had been “scrolling too much.”

The actress discovered that she had a sizable brain tumor at that point.

Walsh told Kelly Clarkson that cancer runs in her direct family because her mother had breast cancer and her father passed away from complications from lung cancer.

In a September 2017 interview with Cosmopolitan, she said that she even thought her symptoms were caused by menopause, pointing out that “there are a lot of the same markers.” She went on to say that she had to speak out for her own health when people didn’t seem to care about her symptoms.

“I really pushed to see a neurologist. I just had an instinct,” Walsh recalled. “I had to really advocate because they don’t hand out MRIs so easily. But I got an MRI and, thank God I did, because it turned out I had a very sizable brain tumor in my left frontal lobe.”

That diagnosis altered everything for her, including her perspective on health.

“I just left my body,” she said. “My assistant had driven me there, and I had to go get him so that he could take notes because I was gone. It was never anything I would have imagined.”

The growth, a benign meningioma, was surgically removed from the actress just three days after the news was delivered.

She fortunately did not have a malignant tumor, but the trauma of having surgery and a diangosis must have been unbearable.