Published Sep 20, 2019

Cobie Smulders An Ovarian Cancer Survivor Says Her Struggles Helped Her Take On Complex Role in New TV Series "Stumptown"

Details

With the premiere of the new ABC series Stumptown just days away, actress and cancer survivor Cobie Smulders is speaking up about how her own struggles helped to prepare her for taking on such a complex role. The How I Met Your Mother alum plays a character named Dex in the new show — which is based off of a graphic novel series and will debut on Sept. 25 — and said that one of the things that attracted her to the role was the fact that Dex is tough and has taken on a lot, which is certainly relatable for Smulders.

“One of the reasons I enjoy doing this show and I signed on to it is because it is real, a true mixture of comedy, action, and drama,” Smulders, 37, told Wonderwall.com at the Stumptown premiere earlier this week. “[Dex] has a lot of perseverance. She’s overcome a lot; I’ve overcome a lot. So, I certainly relate to her in that sense, but she’s a fighter — and I think that, you know, all of us women are.”

Cobie Smulders, who has a new show premiering on ABC this week, is an ovarian cancer survivor.

Smulders’ character is a military veteran turned private detective, who takes on cases while battling PTSD, dealing with a gambling debt, caring for a disabled brother, and dealing with a very complicated love life. Smulders’ own struggles are a bit less dramatic — but just as difficult. The actress was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was just 25 years old and when she was in the middle of filming the third season of How I Met Your Mother. She kept the diagnosis to herself for quite a long time, battling the disease out of the public eye.

She chose not to talk about the diagnosis publicly until 2015 and she went on to play the beloved Robin Scherbatsky in all nine HIMYM seasons. When she did share her battle with the world, she told Women's Health magazine that she had tumors on both of her ovaries, and the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and surrounding tissues. It took two years and several surgeries to remove all of the cancer.

View this post on Instagram

It's happening!! Very excited for you all to see what we've been working on… #Stumptown
A post shared by Cobie Smulders (@cobiesmulders) on Aug 9, 2019 at 12:51pm PDT

Smulders On Having Children After Ovarian Cancer

Smulders was very young to have the disease. Most women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed after menopause, and roughly half are over the age of 60. The actress had said in the past that one of her biggest fears after she was diagnosed was that she would not be able to have children because she was diagnosed so young.

"I think [the cancer battle] was messy mostly because I had a great fear of not being able to have kids," Smulders said in a 2018 interview with People. "I've always been very maternal. I've always loved children and I've always wanted one of my own, and so having that not being an option, especially at such a young age kids were very much not on my mind at 25, but I still wanted them one day it was really hard and it was a really depressing thing to go through."

Fortunately, Smulders' surgeon was able to save enough of her ovaries for her to conceive. She and actor/comedian husband Taran Killam have two daughters, ages 10 and 4.

Now that she’s been in remission for about a decade, Smulders isn’t shy when it comes to discussing her cancer — and how it changed her life. Over the summer, while promoting Stumptown, Smulders reflected on what she learned from being diagnosed at such a young age during a Television Critics Association panel.

“I think that going through [cancer] has made me a better person, a better mother, certainly able to tap into things in terms of creating characters, but I think the general overall gift — if cancer can give you a gift — is being grateful for being here,” Smulders said.

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.