Was in Charleston, South Carolina, making the TV mini-series
Scarlett (1994) when she became dizzy and passed out. Taken to a nearby hospital, they did a sigmoidoscopy of the lower colon the following day and discovered that she had rectal cancer. She was treated successfully surgically. She wrote "Second Act" in 1997, a frank and irreverently humorous book chronicling her 30-year experience first with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and her cancer battle.