Desperate Housewives Actress Kathryn Joosten Has Lung Cancer

Desperate Housewives actress Kathryn Joosten has been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Joosten, who plays Housewives‘ Mrs. McCluskey, is already a cancer survivor, beating the illness in 2001.  The latest diagnosis came two weeks ago, when the 69-year-old actress went in for her annual physical exam.

“I’ve got a little hang-up here, but we’re going to handle it and move forward. I’m doing great,” Joosten said.

“They [producers of the show] are totally supportive. I said, ‘If you want to put it in the story line, do it! Tell anybody you want, because the public’s going to know.”

Kathryn also wants to be an inspiration for others in her situation and talked to an audience of 600 people about surviving and living your dreams the day after she knew about the relapse.

“I felt like the legs had been pushed out from under me,” Joosten said of receiving the news. “I completely did not expect it, and was devastated. I was crying for nearly five days straight.”

The actress also hopes to errase the stigma of breast cancer.

“The first thing everyone says is, ‘Did you smoke?’ Yeah, I smoked,” said Joosten. “I smoked because Betty Davis said it was very glamorous. I smoked because it was seen everywhere and done everywhere. I got addicted because the tobacco companies add additives to their tobacco to make it more addictive. I’m damned mad at all of them. But that stigma has to go away.”