Just months into married life, Will Reeve found himself facing a deeply personal health crisis—one that forced him to pay closer attention to his body and reminded him of the importance of speaking openly about difficult experiences.
The 34-year-old ABC News national correspondent, best known to television viewers as a contributor to Good Morning America, has revealed that he was diagnosed with testicular cancer earlier this year. The diagnosis came only a few months after he married event planner Amanda Dubin Reeve, turning what should have been a carefree period of newlywed life into an unexpectedly difficult chapter.
Yet, according to Will, the experience has also reinforced lessons he learned from his late parents, actor Christopher Reeve and Dana Reeve. Both became widely known for their advocacy and willingness to speak publicly about hardship, illness, disability and caregiving.
“I was raised to share one’s struggles if, in doing so, that might help others,” Will told People in its September 29, 2026, report.
That philosophy has shaped the way he has approached his diagnosis. Rather than keeping the experience entirely private, Will has chosen to discuss what happened, including the seemingly minor symptom that first prompted him to seek medical attention, the surgeries that followed, the emotional challenges of treatment and the couple’s concerns about starting a family.
Most importantly, Will says he is now cancer-free following treatment.
“I’m going to be fine,” he said. “But this was a heck of a chapter.”
A New Marriage Before Everything Changed
The diagnosis came at a particularly significant moment in Will’s life.
Only months earlier, he and Amanda had celebrated their wedding after a relationship that almost never made it past their first date.
According to Vogue’s account of their relationship and wedding, the couple first matched online in the late summer of 2022. Although they were interested in meeting, a combination of COVID-related complications, travel and busy schedules repeatedly interfered with their plans.
Eventually, they arranged a date for the fall.
Then Will was unexpectedly dispatched to the United Kingdom to cover the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Amanda later sent him a text expressing her condolences while he was working in London. She apparently did not initially realize that Will was there as a journalist covering the historic event rather than because he had some personal connection to the royal family.
The assignment consumed Will’s attention. He became so absorbed in his work that he failed to respond to Amanda for more than a week.
Eventually, he realized what had happened and reached back out. Will explained that he had not intentionally ignored her and asked whether she would give him another chance.
She agreed.
The two finally met for coffee at Banter on Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village.
“It was apparent to both of us right away that there was a connection,” Will recalled. “Even potential for something big.”
Their relationship continued to grow, eventually leading to an engagement in November 2024.
Will planned an elaborate proposal at Ralph Pucci International in New York’s Flatiron District, with help from Amanda’s mother and his adoptive parents, Ralph and Ann Pucci.
The Puccis had played a particularly important role in Will’s life. After the deaths of his parents, they became an important parental presence and helped provide stability during an extraordinarily difficult period.
For the proposal, Will arranged flowers, candles, a photographer and even a harpist. Amanda initially believed the couple was simply attending an event at the gallery.
Eventually, Will had to tell her, “I’m going to need you to put your phone away.”
He then led her through the space and proposed in front of a window overlooking the Empire State Building.
A Wedding Filled With Memories of Christopher and Dana
Will and Amanda married on January 17, 2026, at the Rubell Museum in Miami.
Approximately 300 guests attended the wedding weekend, which incorporated numerous personal details designed to honor Will’s late parents.
Christopher Reeve, the actor best known for portraying Superman, was left paralyzed from the neck down following a 1995 horseback-riding accident. He later became a prominent advocate for spinal cord injury research and disability rights.
Dana Reeve, meanwhile, became known not only for her own career as an actress and singer but also for her devotion to her husband and family. She died of lung cancer in 2006 at age 44.
Will was only a teenager when he lost his mother, following the death of his father several years earlier.
Their absence was therefore impossible to separate from such a major milestone as his wedding.
Will incorporated them into the ceremony through objects and traditions that carried years of family history.
He wore gold cufflinks that had belonged to his father as well as a brooch belonging to his mother. Amanda also gave him a pocket square embroidered with the words “I love you” in Dana’s handwriting, taken from an old letter.
The newlyweds also wore Christopher and Dana’s wedding bands, which had been preserved by the family.
Music provided another emotional connection.
Will walked down the aisle to Norah Jones’s “Sunrise,” a song that had been one of his mother’s favorites. Jones had also performed the song at Dana’s memorial service in 2006.
Two chairs were intentionally left empty during the ceremony, each marked with a flower in memory of Christopher and Dana.
“I thought about all the moments in my life they’d missed out on,” Will said, “but also how present they felt in the room and in the ceremony.”
Later, Will shared a special mother-son dance with Ann Pucci, whose family had become a source of support following his mother’s death.
It was a wedding built around family, remembrance and the beginning of a new chapter.
But only a few months later, Will and Amanda would find themselves confronting an entirely different kind of milestone.
The Health Scare That Changed Their Newlywed Year
This past spring, Will noticed something unusual while taking a shower.
He discovered a tender lump on one of his testicles.
His initial response was not panic.
Instead, he assumed it was probably nothing and might simply disappear.
“I assumed it was nothing or would go away,” Will recalled.
Amanda, however, encouraged him not to make assumptions.
“It’s probably nothing,” she told him, “but what if it’s something?”
She urged him to have an ultrasound.
That decision changed everything.
Will was stunned when the examination revealed that the lump was cancerous.
He had been married for only about three months.
What had begun as a seemingly insignificant physical change had suddenly become a serious medical diagnosis.
For Will, the experience became a reminder of how easily warning signs can be minimized—and how important it can be to have someone willing to say, “What if?”
Surgery Came Quickly
By early May, Will underwent an orchiectomy, a surgical procedure in which the affected testicle is removed.
Although the diagnosis itself was frightening, Will said he was also anxious about the operation because he had very little experience with surgery.
“I hadn’t had surgery since I got my tonsils out at 5,” he explained.
In some ways, he said, the unfamiliarity of the procedure worried him more immediately than the larger realization that he was losing an essential part of his body.
The operation meant time away from his normal professional routine. Will took several days off from work to recover.
Throughout the process, he credited Amanda with encouraging him to take the original symptom seriously.
The experience also gave new meaning to one of the most familiar phrases associated with marriage.
“We talk about ‘in sickness and in health,’” Will said. “We got an early test of our vows, just a few months in.”
For Amanda, the experience provided an unexpectedly powerful confirmation of their partnership.
“The silver lining was that we had validation early in the marriage that we are well-equipped to tackle anything,” she said.
The Question of Starting a Family
The diagnosis also forced the newlyweds to confront a deeply personal question much sooner than they had expected: Would cancer treatment affect their plans to have children?
Will and Amanda had already discussed starting a family.
Because treatment for testicular cancer can potentially affect fertility, Will underwent sperm banking before proceeding with additional treatment.
An orchiectomy does not necessarily prevent a man from fathering children naturally. However, Will explained that the couple did not want to leave something as important as their plans for parenthood to chance.
“We do want to start a family,” he said. “And while an orchiectomy doesn’t prevent natural conception, you never know, so you want to be safe.”
The possibility of becoming parents remained one of the couple’s biggest concerns during the early stages of his diagnosis.
Will later explained on Good Morning America that the steps they took mean they will be able to pursue having biological children through medically necessary IVF.
“We really want to be parents, and the great joy is that we are going to be able to have children, our own children,” he said. “And that’s what we want to do.”
For a couple who had only recently exchanged wedding vows, the uncertainty surrounding fertility added another emotional dimension to an already overwhelming situation.
Then Came More Difficult News
Initially, Will and Amanda hoped the cancer diagnosis would become a brief interruption in an otherwise joyful period of their lives.
Will described his initial hope as a “momentary blip in an otherwise great time in my life.”
Further testing, however, showed that there was more to address.
Will said approximately 95 percent of the testicular cancer identified was embryonal carcinoma, an aggressive form of testicular cancer.
That finding meant that removing the affected testicle would not be the end of treatment.
On June 10, Will underwent a six-hour operation to remove dozens of lymph nodes from his abdomen.
Three of those lymph nodes tested positive for testicular cancer.
As a result, Will required two rounds of chemotherapy.
The treatment was another major interruption to his professional life. He took approximately two and a half weeks away from Good Morning America while recovering from the operation.
Yet throughout the process, Will said his doctors repeatedly emphasized a word that offered reassurance during an otherwise frightening period.
“Every doctor I saw along the way was using what I call the good C-word — ‘cure,’” he said.
That distinction mattered.
Although the diagnosis and subsequent treatment were serious, Will said his medical team consistently approached his case with the expectation that it could be successfully treated.
A Difficult Chapter With a Positive Update
By September, Will had reached a significant milestone.
Following his treatment, he said a September 8 checkup confirmed that he was cancer-free.
The news came after months of surgery, recovery and chemotherapy—and after a period in which he and Amanda had been forced to confront questions about health, mortality and their future together much earlier than either had expected.
For Will, sharing the experience publicly is not simply about explaining what happened to him.
It is also consistent with a philosophy he learned from his parents: that speaking openly about difficult experiences can potentially help someone else recognize a problem, seek help or feel less alone.
In his case, the entire experience began with something he initially believed was probably nothing.
A tender lump led to an ultrasound. The ultrasound led to a diagnosis. The diagnosis led to surgery, additional testing, another major operation and chemotherapy.
And through it all, Will said, Amanda remained beside him.
The experience has also given new meaning to the vows they exchanged only months earlier.
Their wedding had been filled with reminders of Christopher and Dana Reeve—the parents Will lost too young and whose influence remains central to his life. Their wedding ceremony had literally made room for their absence while celebrating their continuing presence in Will’s memories.
Then, just months later, Will found himself drawing on another lesson from his family history: the value of talking openly about adversity.
Now, as he looks ahead, he is doing so with a new perspective on his health, his marriage and his plans for the future.
He and Amanda still want to become parents. He still has a career he loves. And after an unexpectedly difficult first year of marriage, he says he is cancer-free.
The experience may have begun with a moment of uncertainty in the shower, but it ultimately became a reminder of the importance of listening to the body, taking unusual symptoms seriously and allowing loved ones to help when something feels wrong.
For Will, it was also an early test of the promises he and Amanda had made to one another.
And for now, after months of uncertainty, treatment and recovery, he is looking toward what comes next.
“I’m going to be fine,” Will said.
For a newlywed who has already experienced more than his share of difficult chapters, those words carry particular weight.