Sara Sidner opens up about a ‘profound’ loneliness amid her health journey with breast cancer

Sara Sidner, who returned to work following breast reconstruction surgery, is opening up about the emotional toll. 

If you’re a woman feeling alone on her journey with breast cancer, Sara Sidner wants you to know that you’re not alone.

On Friday, World Mental Health Day, in a video posted to her Instagram, the 53-year-old “CNN News Central” co-anchor opened up about the “profound” sense of loneliness she’s been experiencing amid her breast cancer journey.

“Lately, and since my last surgery, my reconstructive surgery, I have felt bouts of loneliness that have been utterly crushing,” she said, explaining that as an only child, she had always considered herself immune to loneliness. 

“I don’t know what is going on, and it comes at the oddest times,” she continued. “Sometimes when I’m walking down the hall by myself at work, sometimes when I enter my home, I get this terrible feeling of being just alone and abandoned.” She added, “It really is having a profound effect on me, and for the first time in my life, I’m experiencing loneliness.”

The emotional post comes as Sidner recently returned to work following breast reconstructive surgery after more than a two-year-long battle with breast cancer. She first revealed her diagnosis of stage 3 breast cancer in 2023 before taking a leave of absence in early 2024. Since then, she has undergone a variety of treatments, including chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and radiation. Currently, she has described as living with what’s been called the “long-tail” of cancer involving lots of medication, early menopause, and more.

Through it all, she has been candid about each stage of recovery. From quiet reflections filmed from her hospital bed during chemotherapy to candid moments captured in the dressing room or spontaneous ruminations recorded mid-walk, she’s offered an intimate, real-time window into the emotional and physical realities of healing from cancer.

In her latest post, she closed with a message for others facing similar struggles, especially those without the same level of support or care.

“So I say this to you because I want you to know that if you’re feeling loneliness and you don’t have all the things that I have access to, you’re simply not alone,” she said. “Many of us feel this way, and my empathy for those who are lonely has grown exponentially.”