Mark Ruffalo Shares Why He Waited To Tell His Wife About His Brain Tumour

Mark Ruffalo recently opened up about his diagnosis of a brain tumour more than two decades ago. The 56-year-old star of "Poor Things" shared his experience on Monday's episode of the SmartLess podcast with hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. On the show, the actor recounted the discovery of a benign vestibular schwannoma in 2001.

In the episode, he shared how he told his wife, Sunrise Coigney, about his diagnosis just a few days after she gave birth to their first child in 2001, Page Six reported. 

"When I told Sunny about it, at first she thought I was joking, and then she just burst into tears and said, 'I always knew you were gonna die young,'" the "Hulk" star said on Monday's episode of the "Smartless" podcast, adding that he "might have laughed" right after she said that.

He said that he discovered his tumour 23 years ago when Mrs Coigney was "like nine-and-a-half months pregnant and the baby was imminently coming."

Mr Ruffalo decided to wait to tell her until after she gave birth to their son, Keen, now 22, in June 2001.

"I was just like, 'I can't,' she's already like, 'Oh God, him again, does everything gotta be about him?' And so I just couldn't," he recalled.

He shared the unfortunate news with his wife a week after the baby arrived. 

Sharing about what led to his diagnosis, he recalled, "Mark Ruffalo Recalls Telling Wife About His Brain Tumour Diagnosis

Mark Ruffalo Shares Why He Waited To Tell His Wife About His Brain Tumour

Mark Ruffalo recently opened up about his diagnosis of a brain tumor more than two decades ago. The 56-year-old star of "Poor Things" shared his experience on Monday's episode of the SmartLess podcast with hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. On the show, the actor recounted the discovery of a benign vestibular schwannoma in 2001.

In the episode, he shared how he told his wife, Sunrise Coigney, about his diagnosis just a few days after she gave birth to their first child in 2001, Page Six reported. 

"When I told Sunny about it, at first she thought I was joking, and then she just burst into tears and said, 'I always knew you were gonna die young,'" the "Hulk" star said on Monday's episode of the "Smartless" podcast, adding that he "might have laughed" right after she said that.

He said that he discovered his tumour 23 years ago when Mrs Coigney was "like nine-and-a-half months pregnant and the baby was imminently coming."

Mr Ruffalo decided to wait to tell her until after she gave birth to their son, Keen, now 22, in June 2001.

"I was just like, 'I can't,' she's already like, 'Oh God, him again, does everything gotta be about him?' And so I just couldn't," he recalled.

He shared the unfortunate news with his wife a week after the baby arrived. 

Sharing about what led to his diagnosis, he recalled, "I woke up probably around 3 a.m., and I just had this crazy dream, and it wasn't like any other dream I ever had. It was just like, you have a brain tumour, and it wasn't even a voice it was just pure knowledge --you have a brain tumour, and you have to deal with it immediately."

He shared that he had no symptoms besides an ear infection, but he went to the doctor anyway where they took a CT scan.

"The nurse calls the doctor up, I could hear them talking in the other room. She comes in, kinda like a zombie and says, 'You have a mass behind your left ear the size of a golf ball, and we don't know what it is. We can't tell until it's biopsied,'" he said.

The tumour was benign, but he still had surgery to remove the mass that ultimately left him deaf in his left ear, Page Six reported.

"[I am] completely deaf in one ear, and when I woke up, the left side of my face was paralyzed. I couldn't even close my eyes. I was talking out the side of my mouth," he said.

Mr Ruffalo shared that the paralysis eventually went away after roughly a year, but he still suffers hearing loss.

"Take my hearing, but let me keep the face and just let me be the father to these kids," he remembered thinking.