PORT CHARLES’ Kelly Monaco (Livvie) has been waging a mighty battle against cancer. While she wasn’t diagnosed with the disease herself, she’s shed countless tears while supporting ailing pal Lauren. "Not only have I been doing the show for the past six months, but my best friend in the whole world has been going through hell," she confides. "I could see the fear in her eyes, and as a friend, you just want to take the pain away."
Lauren, a 23-year-old fellow actress, was first diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease early last fall. Coincidentally, it was the same time that Monaco began the grueling work schedule that came with playing the dual roles of Livvie and Tess. In fact, she offers, it was the emotional experience happening in her real life that helped Monaco discover the "genuine vulnerable innocence" that defined Tess.
Bringing It Home
Recalling the touching scene in which Tess reached out to Chris, eager to literally heal his broken heart, Monaco confesses that she was thinking of Lauren at the time. "I’m usually more guarded and don’t bring personal things to the surface, but I did for that scene," she admits. "When I came off set, everyone in hair and makeup was crying and saying, ‘God, that was just so special!’ And I told them, ‘That was my Lauren!’ I just wanted to heal her [because] that was at the height of really bad chemotherapy, and I’d been going home at night and every single weekend to nurture my friend."
Lessons Learned
While the process of cancer treatment — radiation, nausea, hair loss — certainly affected the patient, Monaco herself couldn’t help feeling profoundly changed by it as well. "I’ve come to the conclusion that it sucks how women are raised with vanity and the desire to be beautiful on the outside — especially here in Los Angeles — and it makes you question the meaning of that." On the other hand, she muses, in retrospect, the whole experience was also something of a test. A test, by the way, which Lauren passed with flying colors! "She just beat the disease; she’s done with radiation," Monaco relates, beaming. "She’s such a trouper!"
Thankful that they are now able to look back on the experience as a success story, Monaco is eager to share what they learned from it together. "The thing to remember is that having cancer is not about dying, it’s about living with an illness." — Kelli M. Larson
Kelly Monaco
