Fifty years ago, Betty Ford decided to get a routine gynecological exam while accompanying her friend and aide Nancy Howe to an appointment at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. In the exam room, a doctor performed the exam, including checking her breasts, before leaving the room and returning with the chief of surgery, who also checked her breasts. The doctors then concluded the exam and told her she could return to the White House. Later that evening, doctors told her that she had a marble-sized lump in her right breast and explained they would have to operate right away to determine if the lump was malignant. “Well, they can’t operate immediately. I have a full day tomorrow.” Betty replied.

Betty Ford knew immediately that she would go public with her diagnosis. As she later recalled in an interview with Gloria Steinem, “There had been so much cover-up during Watergate that we wanted to be sure there would be no cover-up in the Ford administration, so rather than continue this traditional silence about breast cancer, we felt we had to be very public.” In addition to emphasizing the openness of her husband’s administration, Betty Ford’s candor brought breast cancer into the public sphere.

At 56 years old, Betty was one of 90,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in 1974, but she knew her role as First Lady put her in a unique position. As she wrote in her autobiography, “I got a lot of credit for having gone public with my mastectomy, but if I hadn’t been the wife of the President of the United States, the press would not have come racing after my story, so in a way it was fate.” Betty made the most of the media’s interest. The White House provided a press release following her admittance to the hospital. 

White House photographers documented her recovery in the hospital, and President Ford, Press Secretary Ron Nessen, and her doctors gave detailed updates to the media. Betty’s openness changed how Americans understood and talked about cancer. 

Visitors can learn more in the showcase exhibit The Betty Blip: Betty Ford’s Battle Against Breast Cancer, on display at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum through April 13, 2025.

Author: Dr. Mirelle Luecke