Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email
Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter
Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter
Jon Hamm has praised his Your Friends & Neighbors co-star, Amanda Peet, for how she has navigated the death of her parents and a recent breast cancer diagnosis while maintaining a demanding career.
Last month, Peet, 54 — who returned Friday for season two of Apple TV+’s hit crime caper opposite Hamm and Olivia Munn — wrote in a deeply personal New Yorker essay about being diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer at the same time both of her parents were receiving end-of-life hospice care.
In a new interview with People, Hamm, 55, said that he has known about Peet’s cancer for a while.
“She had told me about her diagnosis sometime ago, and it’s a very, very tricky balance to strike,” the Mad Men star said.
Addressing the loss of her parents, Hamm shared that he too has lost his parents, although “much earlier in my life.”
Jon Hamm and Amanda Peet co-star in Apple TV+’s crime caper dark comedy ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’ (Apple TV+)Last month, Peet (right) wrote about losing her parents in the weeks after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in a ‘New Yorker’ essay (Getty)
“There’s never a good time to go through that. And obviously, she’s managing that as well as being a mom, and being a wife, and being a survivor on her own — all of that while maintaining a career and maintaining this high level of work that she’s doing is just tremendous,” he said.
The moment Peet told him the news, Hamm remembered being “as compassionate as I could be,” and telling her “if there’s anything she needs, I’m happy to be there for her.”
“I’ve known her and her family for some time, so my heart goes out to her,” he added, “and I’m happy that she’s healthy.”
In the New Yorker article, titled “My Season of Ativan,” Peet opened up about the heartbreaking events that unfolded in the weeks after her doctor discovered a tumor in her breast in August 2025.
Season two of ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’ premiered Friday (Apple TV+)
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day
New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
Try for free
ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day
New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
Try for free
ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
Shortly after news of her own diagnosis, Peet said she found out that her father’s health was declining rapidly.
“My sister called: our father was about to die. Our parents, long divorced, were both in hospice, on opposite coasts. Our mothers had started in June, but our father’s was only a week in, so we hadn’t expected him to go first,” the Whole Nine Yards actor wrote.
She then recalled that in the weeks after her first clear MRI scan, the hospice nurse informed her that her mother, who was in the final stage of Parkinson’s disease, was about to pass away. She said she decided against sharing news of her diagnosis with her mother because it may have confused her further.
“I wasn’t sure whether my mom knew that she was looking at me or whether I was just a constellation of interesting, disembodied shapes. I said ‘howdy doodle’ — that’s how she often greeted me,” she wrote. “But then I realized that she was communing without words, and I followed suit. Time was running out, and, besides, I had already told her everything.”
Peet stars inYour Friends & Neighbors, which premiered its second season Friday on Apple TV+. The show follows Hamm as Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a recent divorcee who resorts to robbing his wealthy neighbors to stay afloat.
New episodes of Your Friends & Neighbors season two air Fridays on Apple TV+.
