Florida State’s first lady Casey DeSantis is back on the press and events circuit after recovering from breast cancer. Casey wants everyone to know that her husband, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, has been supportive through it all.
“If I start talking about how wonderful my husband is, that’s when I start to lose it,” Casey DeSantis said Tuesday after he introduced her at a press event in Miami. “I didn’t wear waterproof mascara. To say that he has been by my side every step of the way — he literally has been.”
According to Casey, Ron DeSantis sat next to her and held her hand as she underwent all six of her chemotherapy appointments. “He has picked me up literally and figuratively throughout this process,” Casey DeSantis said.
The couple first announced the breast cancer diagnosis publicly in October 2021.
Casey DeSantis’ comments on Tuesday show a softer side of the sometimes controversial governor, who has become a major star in the GOP as he fans cultural battles, aggressively confronts journalists, and wages high-profile disputes with the Biden administration.
As Florida’s first lady, Casey DeSantis, 41, who has largely focused on children’s mental health since her husband has been in office, is prepared to make cancer care a key platform.
On Tuesday, the couple announced that the Sunshine State would spend $100 million on cancer research. The total, authorized through the legislature, is $37 million higher than current funding.
“It’s something that you can beat,” Ron DeSantis said of a breast cancer diagnosis. “It’s not easy, it’s a very difficult thing to have happen to anybody but have faith and really fight hard, because the advances have been really significant.”
During the event, Casey DeSantis opened up about her breast cancer diagnosis saying she didn’t feel any lumps but had a “dull sensation.” Even though her obstetrician-gynecologist said during an appointment that she was good to go, Casey couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, she said, so she pushed for a mammogram.
Casey DeSantis said hearing stories from other people who had recovered from the illness was one of the major factors that kept her going after her diagnosis. She hinted that the governor’s office would soon be announcing a public health project “to share more of the good news.”
Ron DeSantis, 43, also opened up about how he was initially afraid that his three children — Madison, 5; Mason, 4; and Mamie, 2 — might grow up without a mother. DeSantis also praised his wife for her positive attitude as she endured the treatment and shared that his mother, who was a nurse, had also had breast cancer when he was a child. The five-year survival rate for breast cancer today is 90%, according to the American Cancer Society.
“She was always doing whatever she could to make sure the kids were good, that I was good — I mean she’s worrying about me during this,” the governor said of his wife. “She was really a champion.”
