Suzanne Somers’ On Her Controversial Decision to Refuse Chemo

Suzanne Somers opens up to Closer in her most candid interview to date, revealing how surviving breast cancer changed her life and sharing her health secrets to feeling her absolute best at 67.

“I’m going to live to be 110 years old!” Suzanne tells Closer in the exclusive interview. "I’m now healthier than ever."

Her breast cancer diagnosis came as a wake-up call. “I never thought this would happen to me. I thought I had taken care of myself!”

After Three’s Company, Suzanne became a fitness guru, spokeswoman of the ThighMaster and author of diet, fitness and wellness books. “I had to do some deep soul-searching. I realized I wasn’t taking sleep seriously, staying up late to write my books.”

And though her body was in tip-top shape, “I had never thought about dietary choices relative to my health.”

After a lumpectomy and radiation, Suzanne chose not to get chemotherapy: “It has been a failure for so many. I was not going to take [it] and poison my body.” Instead, she used Iscador, an alternative treatment made from mistletoe that’s said to rev up the immune system. “For me, it was the best choice I could have made.”

Suzanne tells Closer that getting cancer was the “beginning of a new life for me.”

Nowadays, she grows her own organic vegetables and gets eight hours of sleep a night — “sometimes more," the actress confesses.

“I do yoga three times a week and I walk for a half hour every day. In between, I get on the elliptical and my triple thigh trainer — I really do use the ThighMaster! — and do about 20 minutes on each of those. I also walk up and down the stairs a lot.”

Related: Suzanne Somers Wants To Return To Television!

Suzanne also takes bioidentical hormones — supplements the body treats like its own, which replace hormones lost due to aging and other factors. “I take perfect care of my machine," she says, but learning how to do that comes with age.

“Wisdom is the gift of aging; no young person can have it or buy it,” Suzanne tells Closer.

“At the height of my success on television when I was the number one star on the number one show, I was happy, but I didn't have the wisdom and perspective that I have now,” the mom-of-one explains. “When you do achieve wisdom, you look back and you often think, ‘I wish I knew then what I know now.’”

For more from Suzanne’s exclusive interview including her defense against doctors who disagree with her controversial treatment methods and her thoughts on aging and success, pick up the new issue of Closer, on stands now!