‘Dance Moms’ Alum Kelly Hyland Has Been Diagnosed With Breast Cancer: “I Am On A Very Long And Tough Road”

Dance Moms star Kelly Hyland has gone public with the news of her breast cancer diagnosis.

Kelly opened up to E! News about the moments leading up to being diagnosed with invasive carcinoma grade 3, citing her “first red flag” as her “significant weight loss.”

“I lost enough that others noticed and would ask for my dieting hacks, but there was nothing I had changed in my day-to-day to cause the loss,” she explained.

In late March, she discovered a lump in her breast, leading her to schedule a mammogram appointment. While she had received a mammogram eight months prior and got “clean” results at the time, her new test “came back showing a mass,” which she learned was malignant.

After her first six initial chemotherapy treatments — Kelly is now on her second — she will undergo surgery, radiation and 11 other treatments.

“I have a long journey ahead,” she told E! News.

Fortunately, Kelly has a strong support system, including her three children — fellow Dance Moms alums Paige and Brooke, as well as her son, Josh — and her “main care taker,” her older sister, Carrie Matarazzo. Kelly has been staying with Matarazzo and Matarazzo’s husband Dom in Pittsburgh while undergoing treatments, noting that “they have been waiting on [her] hand and foot,” per E! News.

Kelly also shouted out her former co-stars, whom she said are all “aware of what is going on.” She said she is still recording her Dear Dance Mom… podcast with Melissa Gisoni, Holly Frazier, and Jill Vertes, as well as her Back to the Barre podcast with Christi Lukasiak to try to make her life “as normal as possible.”

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“They have been extremely supportive and are willing to film around my treatment schedule and how I’m feeling,” she elaborated. “I’m very lucky to have such great friends and a flexible job that allows me keep some normalcy during all of this.”

Many of her co-stars sent their love in the comments section of her Instagram post linking to her interview with E! News.

Kelly deemed “the hardest part” of her current battle “accepting help from the people around [her],” explaining that as “a very independent person and, as a mom,” she’s “used to being the one taking care of people, not the one being taken care of.”

“I hate feeling like I am inconveniencing anyone or being a burden in anyway,” she said. “However, I am quickly learning I am on a very long and tough road, so I am going to need to learn to accept people’s help because I am very lucky to have people that want to take care of me during this time.”