The popular home expert has grown close to fans' hearts for another reason, too. Here she shares about the habits, and the daily pill, that help her stay strong.
Clea Shearer Continues To Share Her Breast Cancer Journey: “I Was So Desperate for Information”
Published on Feb. 28, 2025
We can’t all hire a home organizer, but there’s something about the idea of one that gives a feeling of reassurance—a pro who accepts you with non-judgment, a certain strength, and some loving guidance to live more peacefully.
Clea Shearer is known as that presence thanks to her roles as The Home Edit co-founder, New York Times bestselling author, Netflix star and host of ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. But since her 2022 breast cancer diagnosis, Shearer’s been simultaneously seeking strength, as well as sharing it. On a recent two-part episode of Extreme, she and her team worked with a local family navigating leukemia to create a wellness center at Arizona’s Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center for patients and their loved ones who would otherwise need to travel long distances to return home, which often isn’t easy immediately following a treatment.
When we spoke with Shearer earlier in February, just two weeks prior she’d undergone what had been an unanticipated procedure to address a complication that had risen from a surgery she’d had right before the holidays. Too many Americans know: life doesn’t pause for cancer. The mom and entrepreneur told us treatment and recovery have given her reasons to establish some gentle self-grace, as well as her own new priorities and routines, which she shares here.
One of those is taking Verzenio, a daily pill “to treat adults with HR+ [and] HER2,” its maker, Lilly, explains. In some breast cancer patients, Verzenio may “help control how fast cells grow.”
With this type of daily maintenance pill, many patients are able to go on leading active, healthy, long lives. Read how else Clea Shearer said even amid a busy schedule, she’s been successful at putting her wellness first.
The Healthy by Reader’s Digest: We were watching a TODAY appearance you made this past December and you had mentioned that you just recently undergone a surgery. Can I ask how that outcome has been? I hope you’re well.
Clea Shearer: I just had undergone a surgery, and two weeks ago unfortunately, I went in for a routine breast exam and the incision site had kind of opened up. There was a wound that was going straight through to my [reconstructive] implant, so I had to get emergency surgery two Mondays ago—literally exactly two weeks ago—just to make sure there was no infection and to clean everything. They sterilized the implant. They had to sew me back up, the whole thing.
So every time I think I’m done, I am not done. So I’m not going to celebrate the surgery milestones anymore. I’m just going to ride the tide to go with them. But I’m doing well all things considered. I am very good at this point, so I kind of tend to take it in stride. This one was definitely a surprise though. It was just really unexpected. I hadn’t mentally prepared for it, but it went well.
The Healthy: Every hurdle is so trying, but we also appreciate that this conversation just helps make people aware that these are the things that can come up around the diagnosis. It’s good for others to remember that they’re definitely not the only one who encounters these complications, whether they’re large or small. Maybe it helps some feel less isolated, and more connected and hopeful.
Clea Shearer: That’s right. I believe that, and that’s one of the reasons why I’ve been so public about everything and I post everything I go through. I think it helps people to not feel like their experience is only them, that they know there are other people who are going through similar, or people who have just been diagnosed currently in treatment. All of it. I really want to be a vessel of openness in hopes that people can relate or take what they need from it.
The Healthy: Talk to us about that desire to share. Are you glad that life provided this opening for you to bring even greater meaning into the lives of the masses, or are there moments you kind of wish you could just go back to being known for the home organization stuff?
Clea Shearer: Thank you for that question. I personally feel like I was put on this earth to live a life of purpose, and I think that sharing my story with people and helping people through this really difficult time that they might be going through with their friends or loved ones are going through, I think is very much one of the reasons why I’m on this earth.
As difficult and as hard as it was and continues to be, and it’s a very scary thing—but the second I was diagnosed, I said—well, I gave it a few days of mourning. And then I said, “I’m going to make my cancer purposeful and I’m going to do everything I can to be really vocal, to speak out, to share my story in hopes that someone finds a connection with it.” It is one of the most important things I do now with my life. So as hard and as horrible as it is to go through cancer, I do think that in some ways there’s a gift within it.
I mean on the episode of Extreme, how we built the wellness center at the Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center: What an incredible thing that I get to do, to be a part of something that I wish I’d had when I was in treatment.
I think it’s incredible to get to partner with Lilly and help spread awareness about early stage breast cancer with the high risk of recurrence, which is what I have. There are things that people can do to take their health into their own hands: prioritize screenings, self exams, talk to your doctor about different treatment options and medication options. I was really lucky as I was coming out of active treatment, out of chemo and radiation, I talked to my doctor about the new protocol for me, what the next phase of my journey was going to look like, and I have a variety of hormone therapies that I have to [undergo] for the next nearly a decade. And it’s amazing, again through Lilly, being able to help people understand that these options exist. And for me, I take Verzenio twice a day. It’s really important that it makes me feel really empowered. I’m actually able to do something proactively to keep my cancer from returning.
So all of these things ladder up to my ability to share with other people. I was so desperate for information and not just in a textbook kind of way, but to understand people’s life experiences. I feel very fortunate that I’m able to potentially be that for someone.
I feel very blessed that [Verzenio is] an option for me. It’s not an option for everyone. I am hormone receptor-positive, HER- breast cancer with a high risk of recurrence, which is a very long title. So I feel really fortunate that I get to do something and take that extra step to help secure my own health journey. It’s really amazing.
The Healthy: No one wants the diagnosis, but it’s amazing to be living in the times that we’re living in when the science and this medicine are available to us. You’re continuing with this mission, this purpose, as you’ve got a family, your business, the onscreen projects. Is it a lot?
Clea Shearer: I mean, the thing is, I live in a world of a lot. Everything. Everything’s a lot. So that doesn’t stress me out. I am a high-functioning person. It is a lot to juggle and a lot to manage, and I’ve always lived my life by priorities and I’m an organized person, obviously, by nature. You have to organize the things in your life that are taking priority, and you’re not going to ace every single thing at every single point in the day. So really focusing on the things that are right in front of you that really matter, making sure that those are taken care of.
I always kind of organize things in the stuff that has to get done, the stuff that I want to get done, and I think that that’s the only mindset I have in it. I’ve never shied away from a huge task list or a huge mountain of work or a huge upward climb for anything. Even when I was diagnosed, I had my marching orders and I was like, I’m going to army crawl my way through this, but I’m going to do it. So most things do not get me too overwhelmed.
The Healthy: You said in an interview to somebody who had asked you a similar question: “How are you balancing?” You said something to the effect of, “I have just really learned to appreciate every single day,” and a lot of people who have been through anything adjacent to this probably are going to completely get what you mean. But is there a really a concrete example of what that means to you or how you, is there any habit that you evolved with that mindset?
Clea Shearer: Yeah, I mean, there are certain things that I feel like I’ve needed to prioritize in my life because of my circumstance, and things that I want to add to my life because of what I’ve gone through, and things that I need to do for my life. For instance, I am a person who needs more sleep than I ever used to need. I need more rest and I need to give myself grace for that. I don’t need to be on a hamster wheel for everything. If I can’t do it, I can’t do it. And that is a new thing for me. I’ve never been someone who didn’t force themselves to do a million things, so that’s one thing that I’ve learned to take in stride. Another thing that I really have to do is I have to be moving every single day, at least 30 minutes.
The Healthy: Me too. I love that.
Clea Shearer: I would prefer between 30 and 60, but again, recovering from surgery, it’s a little tough. But I have to move my body every single day. It’s literally a part of my doctor’s orders. There are just certain things that I absolutely need to do, and then there’s certain things that I really want to layer in. I’ve been working pretty nonstop for, well, for a long time, but especially with The Home Edit for at least 10 years. And there are certain things that I want to be able to layer back into my life, like any kind of activity, like anything—do I start a book club? I don’t know. Am I going to make jewelry? I’m not sure, but I just feel like those kind of happy moments that aren’t necessarily tied to what I have to do. And yeah, I take my life kind of in stride now and again, it’s about focus. It’s also about giving myself a pass on things sometimes and letting myself rest and do what it needs to do and really just focusing every single day on what I can do to continue to build this beautiful life I have.
The Healthy: What’s one self-care habit you refuse to skip? Would sleep be it?
Clea Shearer: Sleep is my absolute priority. I just know at this point, again, I’ve been through so much with my health that there is no substitute for that at all. And so I force myself to do it. If that means missing out on certain things, then it means missing out on certain things. I know that my body needs sleep to repair itself, and that’s my number one every single day.
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