Val Kilmer confirmed he had cancer – and is now doing OK – after months of denying he was sick.
The first hint that Kilmer was ill came in 2015 when he was spotted at UCLA Medical Center. Then in November, fellow actor and pal Michael Douglas mentioned that Kilmer was fighting throat cancer.
Kilmer, at that time, said he never had cancer and that Douglas was “misinformed.”
But this past week during a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session, Kilmer came clean.
“A while ago, Michael Douglas claimed you had terminal cancer,” one fan asked. “What was the story behind that?”
Kilmer answered: “He was probably trying to help me cause press probably asked where I was these days, and I did have a healing of cancer, but my tongue is still swollen altho healing all the time. Because I don’t sound my normal self yet people think I may still be under the weather.”
Moments later, a Reddit user put two and two together – that Kilmer was outing himself as a cancer survivor.
“So wait….did I miss something, or is this the first admission from you that you were battling cancer?” the user said.
The “Top Gun” actor also used the platform to dismiss rumors he and Tom Cruise clashed while filming the iconic high-flying flick.
“He was a sweet heart,” Kilmer said. “We were all quite rowdy me and all the real flyboys and the actors, so I actually felt a little sorry for him cause we all had time to play and date the cute extras and zoom around San Diego in muscle cars, but Tom was always in some scene and never go to play with us…”