Jeana Keough is cancer-free, her friend announced in a joint Instagram post Saturday.
“Jeanna [sic] is cancer-free, and that called for a little puppy party,” Jeannine Cecchini wrote alongside her partner Eric Paxton. The celebration photo showed the trio gathered near Christmas decorations and gifts, each holding small puppies. “So grateful to be here celebrating this with you, my friend,” Cecchini added. “Eric and I loved having you over—full arms, happy hearts, and puppies. We love you, Jeanna and we are both looking forward to more days like this.”
The former “Real Housewives of Orange County” star, 71, received her diagnosis in July after her daughter Kara Bosworth, 38, noticed a painful sore on her mother’s tongue. Bosworth detailed the confirmation on a GoFundMe page she created to help with expenses. “A biopsy confirmed our worst fear: squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue,” she wrote. The former Bravo star had since undergone two surgeries, one to remove the cancer and another to “remove lymph nodes.”
However, after the second surgery, doctors discovered the cancer had spread. Bosworth explained that her mother, who works as a real estate agent, had been unable to work her “commission-based” job and had lost substantial income during treatment. The financial strain compounded the physical toll as Keough continued through radiation.
The treatment’s side effects severely limited Keough’s daily life. Bosworth shared on her Instagram Stories that her mother was unable to talk due to the “tongue and throat pain, paired with the mucus from radiation on the area.” At one point, Bosworth noted that Keough was “struggling” and “isn’t talking” amid the painful treatment, and that her mother had been refusing pain medications even as she could barely drink water.
Keough completed her radiation treatment in August, setting the stage for Saturday’s celebratory announcement. The puppy-filled gathering marked a sharp turn from the grim updates that had defined the months prior.
The “RHOC” alum was an original cast member on the Bravo series, appearing for five seasons from 2006 to 2010. She became one of the franchise’s foundational figures during its early years, establishing the template for the Orange County edition before departing after the fifth season.
Bosworth’s GoFundMe had sought to bridge the gap left by her mother’s inability to work during treatment, highlighting how the diagnosis disrupted both Keough’s health and her livelihood simultaneously.