Patrick Dempsey Recalls 'Brutal' Experience of Late Mother's Cancer Coming Back 12 Times

Kimberlee SpeakmanThu, June 25, 2026 at 8:17 PM UTC

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A photo of Patrick Demsey with his mother Amanda and on 'GMA.'Credit: AP Photo/Sun Journal, Amber Waterman; ABC

Key Takeaways

Patrick Dempsey created the Dempsey Center, inspired by his late mother's resilience during her battle with ovarian cancer

His mother faced 12 cancer recurrences but continued to volunteer and give back to her community until her death

Dempsey says losing his mother strengthened his focus on family and made him a better husband and father

Patrick Dempsey is opening up about the difficulty of watching his late mom Amanda suffer from cancer, and how it inspired him to create a cancer center to help others going through similar experiences.

The Grey's Anatomy alum, 60, shared the heartbreak of his mother's multiple ovarian cancer diagnoses in an interview with Good Morning America on Thursday, June 25.

"I think it was really, you feel helpless. [This] was one of the last pictures I had with my mother," the actor said, as a picture of him and his mother hugging was shown on the screen.

"She had 12 recurrences. It was brutal," he continued. "It was a very hard… assume like, every two years it came back. But through that process, she would always ask herself, 'Why did I survive and so many people that I've gone [through] treatment with have not.' "

He said that despite the challenges that his mother went through as she sought treatment again and again for cancer, she would still "volunteer and give back to the community" up until her death in 2014.

It was that mindset that helped the actor create the Dempsey Center, a non-profit organization that provides free, holistic support and quality-of-life care for cancer patients and their families.

"You want to do something positive, and have a positive impact. And you can look in your own backyard," Dempsey said. "You don't have to look, you know, 'I gotta take on the world.' It's like if you just take care of your backyard, you can make a big difference, and I just wanted to do something that was positive."

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He spoke about the importance of supporting people at varying points in their cancer journeys. "You go through the treatment and then you're left all alone, and that's when the healing needs to begin and you need the emotional and the mental support of that… and that's where it came from. That was the inspiration. 'What can we do to help other families go through this in an easier way?,' " he added.

Dempsey previously opened up about the toll his mother's diagnosis had on himself and his family on the Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris podcast in 2023.

"She survived much longer than anticipated," he shared at the time. "She had a slow-growing cancer that came back almost every two years and she fought it for a very long time."

Patrick Dempsey pictured with his mother Amanda in 2011.Credit: AP Photo/Sun Journal, Amber Waterman

He also told PEOPLE for his 2023 PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive cover that he felt a sense of closure by the time his mother died.

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"There were a couple surgeries, we weren't sure that she was gonna make it," he said. "And we had some of our best conversations where everything was on the table. She was very open and very clear and forthright with what she was feeling. And so for me, yes, but not all of my siblings. My siblings did not have that closure and are still paying the price of that."

The Memory of a Killer star also shared that the grieving process of losing his mother had other impacts on his life, including making him a better husband to Jillian Dempsey and father to their three children.

"You really do prioritize your family and your children," he said. "The family unit I think is really important and makes me appreciate that more."

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”