Screenwriter/director Nora Ephron kept her health battle secret from friends and family as she refused to be treated differently because of her illness.
The Sleepless in Seattle legend had been secretly struggling with acute myeloid leukemia and she passed away late last month after contracting a bout of pneumonia.
Ephron’s husband, Nicholas Pileggi, has now revealed why his wife decided not to tell anyone about her failing health. He tells the New York Post, “We understood she had only a short time. But Nora believed if anyone knew, they’d view her differently. It would always be, ‘How is she?’… ‘How do you believe she’s feeling?’… ‘Think she’s able to finish what we’re working on?’ (During the) last six months, as things became worse, she was taking aggressive treatment. And then pneumonia set in.”
Meryl Streep, who starred in Nora Ephron‘s films Heartburn and Julie & Julia, said about her friend during the memorial, “She pulled a fast one on us. I feel so privileged to speak, but I’m also pissed off. I guess sometimes you have to wait for someone to leave the room to say how great they are.”
