The cause of death for Suzanne Somers has been disclosed.
According to a death certificate The Blast was able to get, the actress from Three’s Company passed away on Sunday, October 15 at 5:30 a.m. after her breast cancer had spread throughout her body.
According to the paper, a biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of “breast cancer with metastasis to the brain” as the reason for her death.
The certificate purportedly mentioned hydrocephalus and hypertension, or high blood pressure, as further underlying problems that contributed to her death, even though no autopsy was done.
The disease known as hydrocephalus, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, is characterized by “excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) building up within the fluid-containing cavities or ventricles of the brain” and “harmful pressures on the brain tissues.” According to Somers’ death certificate, the actress experienced hydrocephalus for more than a year.
According to The Blast, which cited the death certificate, Somers was buried at Cathedral City’s Desert Memorial Park three days after she passed away in a ceremony managed by a funeral parlor in Palm Springs, California.
Officials from Riverside County have been contacted by PEOPLE seeking confirmation.
Publicist R. Couri Hay of Somers told PEOPLE earlier this month that she had passed away. She was seventy-six.
Suzanne Somers departed from this life in a calm manner at home on October 15, early in the morning. In an email to PEOPLE on behalf of the actress’ family, Hay said, “She overcame an aggressive form of breast cancer for almost 23 years.
The statement went on, “Suzanne was surrounded by her loving husband Alan, her son Bruce, and her immediate family.” On October 16, her family came together to celebrate her 77th birthday. Rather, they will honor her remarkable life and express their gratitude to the millions of admirers and followers who cherished her.
Over the years, the Step by Step actress has been transparent about her health issues, including her breast cancer diagnosis in 2000. Throughout her life, she also battled multiple different types of cancer.
“It rocked my soul to say the words ‘I have breast cancer’ in public,” Somers said to PEOPLE in 2001.
“Were silent, hardly talking, in disbelief, like this can’t be happening, wondering is this a little blip or the end of my life?” she recalled her husband Alan Hamel asking her after she received the initial diagnosis.
Somers said to the Los Angeles Times in 2007 that she was cancer-free following treatment for her disease with radiation, a lumpectomy, and alternative medicine. But in an Instagram post from July 2023, the actress disclosed that her breast cancer had returned.
She added, “As you know, I had breast cancer two decades ago, and every now and then it pops up again, and I continue to bat it down,” next to a picture of herself and Hamel, 87. To counteract it, I have employed the most effective complementary and alternative therapies.
“This is not unfamiliar ground for me,” she went on. “I’m a fighter and I know how to put on my battle gear.”
A poem that Hamel had written for his wife, which he had given her the day before she passed away, was shared with PEOPLE by Somers’ publicist after word of her passing.
One line of the poem, written in all caps, said, “LOVE.” SUZANNE IS NOT APPLICABLE TO ANY VERSION OF THE WORD. Not even close is the closest version in words. A fraction of a fraction of a fraction is not even what it is.”
55 YEARS TOGETHER, 46 YEARS MARRIED, AND 42 YEARS WITHOUT EVEN AN HOURS APART. THAT ALONE IS INSUFFICIENT. It doesn’t even work to go to bed at six o’clock at night and hold hands as we sleep. “IT DOESN’T WORK TO STARE AT YOUR BEAUTIFUL FACE WHEN YOU SLEEP,” he went on. “NO WORDS ARE HERE. NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE. NO GUARANTIES. NOT A DECLARE. WE ARE THREE. For all eternity, my beautiful Suzanne, I am enamored with you.”
After Somers passed away, her husband, as well as her son Bruce and former co-stars Patrick Duffy and Joy DeWitt, expressed their respects.
