HEALTHBlink-182 Star Mark Hoppus Says He 'Thought I Was Going to Die' Amid Grueling Cancer Battle: 'It Was So Freeing'
Blink-182's Mark Hoppus thought he was going 'to die' amid his cancer battle.
April 8 2025, Published 7:55 a.m. ET
Blink-182 star Mark Hoppus revealed he was at peace knowing he might not come out on the other side of his cancer battle.
“I really thought I was going to die,” the star, 53, said in a new interview. “And, in a way, it absolutely was so freeing. I’d spent my whole life hypervigilant, thinking: what’s the worst thing that could happen? And, oh, it’s here now, I’m dealing with it and it still sucks."
The star was declared cancer-free in 2021.
“The physical pain and exhaustion of the chemo, mixed with the steroids and all the other drugs, just crushed me for months on end. But it brought back friendships that I hadn’t had in years. It healed my friendship with Tom [DeLonge]: from day one, he was like: ‘What do you need? I’m there.’ In that friendship and the love and support of people around me, I thought: you know what? I’ve had a pretty awesome life," he continued.
Mark Hoppus married wife Skye Everly in 2000.
The musician, who was diagnosed with stage 4A diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in 2021, accidentally told the world about what he was going through when he sent a photo of himself on a chemo drip to his Instagram page. Due to brain fog, he thought he was sending it to his family WhatsApp group.
“The best mistake I’ve ever made, by far,” he said. “I suffered alone in silence for so long because I thought that, once it came out I had cancer, people’s opinions of me would change. Just generally in life, I felt that when people get sick or injured in some way they get left behind, like: ‘OK, you’re over here now in a different category.’ But I was wrong.”
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The singer calls Travis Barker and Tom DeLonge his 'best friends' in his book.
Hoppus, whose memoir Fahrenheit-182 is releasing on April 8, was touched when fans, who were also battling cancer, would send him videos of themselves singing Blink-182 songs to him.
“All these people who were fighters and winners, who overcame their cancer,” he gushed. “That helped. I was finally able to say: ‘Yeah. I’m f------ scared, but, you know, I try to put on a brave face.’”
Mark Hoppus said he 'cherishes' every day after his cancer battle.
Now, the "What's My Age Again?" singer is making the most out of his life, especially with his bandmates, Travis Barker and DeLonge.
“I fail a lot and I still get mad at dumb s---, and I still get depressed sometimes, and sometimes I’ll waste a whole day fucking looking at my phone and Instagram when I should be out looking at art and creating and doing fun stuff,” Hoppus told Vanity Fair. “But I really, after cancer, have tried to cherish every day, every relationship. It’s made me reevaluate a lot.”
The Guardian interviewed Hoppus.
