NewsNation’s Nichole Berlie Gets Candid About Breast Cancer Journey & Network’s Evolution

Nichole Berlie’s life changed forever on October 4, 2023 when she was diagnosed with a rare breast cancer. There were no visible signs or family history. The cancer itself didn’t even show up on a routine mammogram. However, additional testing revealed dense tissue found in her armpit as the doctor detected cancerous cells in a lymph node. Rather than keep this a secret, the NewsNation anchor shared the heartbreaking news with viewers live on air. 

This personal revelation came just two days before her 46th birthday. Berlie made the conscious decision to take on the cancer fight head on and not drown in self-pity. She took audiences on the difficult journey, even shaving off her hair while undergoing chemo and reporting the news each night. The Emmy award-winning journalist continued to work through it all. A year later the survivor announced she was cancer-free and has since been an advocate using her story to help others. 

Here Berlie explains why she still gets emotional looking back at that time. Plus, the NewsNation original reflects on the network’s evolution as she prepares to coanchor Election Night overnight coverage alongside Jesse Weber starting at midnight on November 4. 

Nichole Berlie

It has been three years since you were first diagnosed with breast cancer and two years since got the news you were cancer free. How do you take in these anniversaries when they come up?  

Nichole Berlie: For both, I’d say it can be really complicated. Especially, having the anniversary of being diagnosed in the same month as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It’s always a little weird for me. I was diagnosed in 2023, and then in 2024 the next year I was clear, but it’s all difficult no matter how much time goes by. It is certainly not a day that I celebrate, the day I was diagnosed with cancer. I’m just so thankful to be here, thankful to have that hopefully behind me for good. So yeah, there’s a lot of mixed emotions with it.

You bravely shared your journey with the public. What kind of impact do you think that made?

I just remember being so stunned and truly in shock for months that I was even in that situation. I mean, it was still so weird for me to even say that I had cancer. So to even come to terms with it took a while, but you don’t have time when you’re undergoing treatment. They want to get things started and get the process rolling, so it was just such a weird feeling. I felt so confused, so overwhelmed, just kind of caught up in so many different emotions. But for some reason I did decide that, hey, you know, I want to try to share parts of it. That’s the thing, too. I was public with it, but I only shared a piece of what the journey was really like. Everyone was very supportive though, which was great. 

How do you look back at your decision to go public with your diagnosis? 

Honestly, if I had to do it all over again, I don’t even know that I would be as public with it. I really don’t know. I’m glad I made that decision, and I’m comfortable in making that decision. I truly don’t know if I would be able to do that if I had to do it all over again. Because sometimes I’m like, “Wow, I can’t believe I really did that.” It’s still so new and so kind of fresh for me, but now I can talk about it. There was a point last year, and certainly in 2024, when I was asked to speak during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I couldn’t do it. It was just too close, too soon for me. Now I feel better. I feel like I’m coming back more emotionally and mentally from the battle, so I’m able to talk about it and not get super emotional. I think that’s one thing I am glad I shared, because it’s not only such a physical battle, but it really is such a psychological battle, too. It is really difficult. So, everybody going through cancer, I understand, and I never understood before. I never thought I would have cancer, but there are so many different layers of what you go through when you’re battling. And even when they give you the all-clear, it’s not like, okay, life goes back to normal. You’re never normal again. There’s the new normal, but you never go back to who and what you were.

You always have that feeling in the back of your mind like it could come back at any time. 

Exactly, you always have that fear. It’s maybe a little different than others because I didn’t have any signs or symptoms. So, when I tell you I was in shock, I was absolutely in denial. I didn’t have a lump. I had zero symptoms. That’s another thing that’s scary for me. I was walking around with cancer in a lymph node in my armpit, and had no idea. I am always a little terrified because I’m walking around, and I look at people. I’m thinking, “There are people walking around right now who have cancer and have no idea.” 

You recently posted on social media about a viewer who watched you on the air and emailed you a critique of your hair. What made you want to address this particular message? 

I’ve been in this business long enough where you develop a very thick skin. Since you come into their homes, people feel like they know you, which is obviously a good thing. But there’s also the flip side of that, where people will comment on your makeup, your hair. I don’t want to speak for men, but I know for women it can be especially brutal at times, which is fine. I’m at the point where I really don’t get feedback like that at this point in my life. That’s kind of what was funny to me. I feel like I don’t really get those comments. If anything, people have nice things to say or talk about a story or something they didn’t like. It’s not about physical attributes. I don’t think it’s the same for cable news anchors as on the local level where people really feel like they know. I go through the cancer battle. I go through it very publicly where a lot of people have seen me with a bald head. In this process, my hair has grown back. A few days ago I had this message, and you can see it online, where they basically said that I should wear my hair behind my shoulders. [It said, “There are enough blond reporters trying to outdo each other with straggly long hair forward of their shoulders.”] 

Normally, I would not even respond, but I thought I was so public with the way I looked. I wasn’t public about the whole battle itself, because again, that was a nightmare, but I was very public with how I looked. I just found it interesting, because I know that this person thought that they were actually being helpful, and they were just sharing their opinion. But it was just one of those people who, for whatever reason, just rubbed me the wrong way. Whether my hair is in front of or behind my shoulders has nothing to do with my ability to bring you the news. It was just such an odd comment, and I thought, “I’m going to respond.” I was very polite and very kind. I just let them know that, “You know, I’m going to actually wear my hair however I choose to wear it.” I could have said more. I didn’t, but it’s just that’s my decision, period. Especially, after I didn’t have a strand of hair on my entire body because I dealt with chemotherapy, and the monster that is literally having toxic chemicals pumping through your entire body. Guess what, stranger that I don’t know? You don’t get to suggest or tell me how I should wear my hair. You just don’t. I think that if anything, before it didn’t even bother me. Then I just wanted to post it because I’m like, “Not only are they doing this. They’re doing it to somebody who survived cancer. It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It’s all the things. They never wrote back. Maybe they realized that was maybe overstepping. For whatever that day, I felt like I had the time that day. Maybe the battle helped to empower me. There are people who would probably say you should have ignored it, but I didn’t want to. I don’t think they had any animosity, but even so, that’s not your place to say that. 

What has it been like seeing the growth of NewsNation as you’ve been there from the early beginnings of this network that launched right after COVID? 

We launched our very first newscast on September 1,  2020, so we were still within COVID. It was weird to move to this brand new city in the middle of the pandemic, but also to be part of this really has been so exciting. I’ve learned so much. It really has been one of the best aspects of my career. At first, I didn’t know what to expect. I walked into it excited at the prospect. I had only worked in local news. So, that was kind of the only perspective that I had. I didn’t really know what to expect. Then being we’re a startup, even if I had national experience, I think it wouldn’t have even been the same because our journey has just been so interesting. We’ve been all over the place. We started as a three-hour daily program. Now I anchor three hours by myself on a 24-hour news program.

We have gone through a massive evolution. To be one of two anchors who were here from the beginning and are still part of it is really special. We joked at one point that if you don’t like something, just wait about six months because it’s probably going to change. Even myself, I think at last count I’ve been through five different iterations of a show. I started on the weekends. I ended up going to a weekday program. It was an hour. They changed names. Then it became two hours. It changed names. It became three hours. I so enjoy what I do. It can get overwhelming, but I love it. Tying it together, after going through something like cancer, I feel I can tackle anything…I enjoy what I do and hope that comes across to viewers ….But to have seen and experienced the evolution of what I do now versus that first newscast, it’s so drastically different. 

Nichole Berlie

With Robin Roberts and Hoda Kotb also cancer survivors and in same field, have you had any interactions with them? 

No, I mean, you know what’s funny? I was back in Omaha, and I remember Robin Roberts was there for some event. This was after she had battled cancer. I didn’t relate to her as a fellow cancer survivor then. It’s interesting when I think about that, my interaction with her then versus if I were to meet her now. It is unique to be in the public eye and battle cancer. I would love to meet her now. I do hope that sharing helps people. I remember seeing something on the morning news. I think it was right before I lost my hair. There was another anchor in Philadelphia or New York who had alopecia. She presents herself to the world the way that she is. I was so touched by that. Even talking about it now, I can feel myself getting emotional. It made me think I was doing the right thing to share this because it could help people.

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You’re going to be very busy with the midterm elections coming up. What do you look out for as you get ready to cover all this?

In this business where we are so inundated in politics, we can really get into a lot of the details. I love getting into the details and the political game so to speak. At the end of the day, it all relates to real-life people, to Americans. Right now, a lot of Americans are hurting, and it is up to our politicians on both sides of the aisle to be held accountable, to properly represent the people that they are elected to represent. As I’m covering these stories, I keep in mind that I am a girl from the middle of America. I’m from Lincoln, Nebraska. I’ve lived in big cities now because of my job, so I understand that big city perspective on things, but I also understand middle America. 

I have family in small towns in Nebraska, so I understand small towns in that way. I understand so many different perspectives. Keeping in mind that, we all do have different experiences, but at the end of the day, everybody wants to feed their families. Everybody wants to have a job that’s secure. Everybody wants to be able to have a little spending money and not be worried about paying the bills or buying food or sending their child to baseball camp. I think keeping that in mind as we tackle all the big issues. Keeping in mind there are people who are affected by every single one of those issues is the most important thing. That and holding our lawmakers accountable.

NewsNation Live with Nichole Berlie, Weekdays, Noon/11c, NewsNation 

Election Night special, November 3, beginning 6/5c, on NewsNation