Valerie Harper: I thought my time on 'Dancing with the Stars' was coming to an end since my first dance

Valerie Harper apparently felt her time on Dancing with the Stars could be up since the seventeenth season's premiere.


When asked when she thought her time was coming to an end on the show during a Tuesday morning appearance on Good Morning America, Harper replied, "Oh, the first dance."

The 74-year-old actress, who had previously revealed she was in grave health with terminal brain cancer, was partnered up with dance pro Tristan MacManus this season.

"I was so happy I didn't fall opening night and break something," Harper said. "You just carry on. But I am not in pain."

Harper tended to receive fairly low scores and land at the bottom of the Dancing with the Stars judges' leaderboard each week after frequently forgetting or messing up dance steps. However, judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli, and guest judge Julianne Hough all admired her courage and determination during the season.


"When we first started working together, my darling Tristan was saying, 'Do you have headaches? Is it memory problems?' Well, yes!" Harper laughed. "But that's from being 74! I didn't know at the time! And then the truth was revealed and all its horror."

Harper was given less than three months to live earlier this year after being diagnosed with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare form of cancer in which cancer cells spread into the membrane surrounding the brain. Doctors initially believed she was unlikely live to see the month of July, but she's still fighting.

The actress' neuro-oncologist, Dr. Jeremy Rudnick, told the Today show in August that Harper is "getting pretty close to remission." But unfortunately, that just means Harper's granted more time to enjoy life, as the cancer won't ever be destroyed entirely despite treatments.

"Now when you have cancer and they say you have three months in January and it's suddenly October, you gotta feel good about that. And the drugs I'm taking... are working right now. So we'll see what goes! And everyone should live like that, one day at a time," Harper told GMA. "Just keep dancing!"

Harper and MacManus were eliminated during Monday night's Dancing with the Stars show. They became the third couple eliminated from the competition based on the combination of judges' scores and home viewer votes. They had received 18 out of 30 possible points for their Viennese waltz last night.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski