The Thread on omg!Giuliana Rancic Interview: Life Is ‘Better Than Ever’ After Breast Cancer
Less than three months after announcing that she was suffering from breast cancer, Giuliana Rancic was back on the red carpet this month at the 2012 Golden Globe Awards, donning not one but two couture gowns and practically glowing from happiness as she chatted with celebrities for her E! show "Fashion Police." What gives?
"A lot of people have said to me, 'You look better now than before your diagnosis,'" the reality star revealed in an interview with omg!. "And I thought maybe it's because I'm so much happier. I think that I dodged a major bullet."
In fact, after Giuliana, 37, endured a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery to treat her breast cancer, she was back at E!, where she also anchors "E! News," only two weeks later -- something even she wasn't sure she'd be able to do the night before. Her daily routine now includes an hour walk before work (she's not quite back to lifting weights) and an even healthier diet than she was to used to before, with plenty of natural snacks, such as nuts, on hand.
"I just feel like things are kind of better than ever, which is so strange. An experience like this can either break you or it can make you stronger," Giuliana noted. "I chose to just have a good attitude about it, to look at the positive, and it's certainly made me stronger."
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She's even starting a charity, a kind of Make-A-Wish Foundation for adults called Fab-U-Wish, for other women in a similar situation. "Listen, obviously I'm not curing cancer and I'm not pretending to, but I thought there's really a void when it comes to breast cancer charities," she explained. "[I want to] do things to put smiles on these women's faces while they're going through tough therapy and horrible diagnoses. It could be anything from, 'I love fashion so much, and I dream of owning a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes' to 'I love Ryan Gosling. You know, he's made me smile when I watch his movies. I'd love to meet him.' And reaching out to him and seeing if maybe we can get the young lady to come on a movie set or meet him."
And while she's fulfilling wishes, you can bet that Giuliana will be well dressed. The fashion critic, who sits alongside Kelly Osbourne, Joan Rivers, and George Kotsiopoulos on "Fashion Police," confessed that, for her, choosing a dress for a red carpet event is about what's comfortable, beautiful, and trendy -- not what others will like.
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"I actually believe that to be a real fashionista you have to be on best dressed lists, of course, but you also have to be on the worst dressed lists, because I think it means you're taking chances," said Giuliana, who names Rachel Roy among her favorite designers. "If you're constantly just kind of middle of the road, making safe choices, you're not a real fashionista."
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Her style obsession carries over into home decor, where Giuliana is promoting the new Glade Expressions line of fragrance mists and oil diffusers in scents such as lavender and juniper berry (which she has at home) and pineapple and mangosteen (which she keeps in her E! office). She recently hosted a Glade Expressions dinner party in New York City, where she says she realized the fragrance in your home -- something we don't often think about -- can dictate the mood, whether the vibe is sophisticated and upscale or more casual and beachy.
Speaking of home, Giuliana and her husband of four years, "The Apprentice" winner Bill Rancic, have made his hometown of Chicago theirs, at least when they're not in L.A. And as if they didn't have enough going on, within the next month the couple is set to open a restaurant in the Windy City called RPM Italian, a modern eatery with small plates instead of the huge portions guests often get when eating Italian.
Viewers of their Style Network reality series "Giuliana and Bill," which is in its fifth season, can expect to see more about the new business venture, as well as what Giuliana calls "the continuing quest for baby." She'll once again undergo in-vitro fertilization in an attempt to get pregnant. (Giuliana credits IVF with discovering her cancer, since she found it through a mammogram ordered by her fertility specialist.) But one thing she won't be dwelling on is her illness.
"As far as the cancer stuff, I don't think we're gonna go very heavy on that. It can tend to get a little depressing, and I really am anything but depressed," she said. "I don't feel like a victim. I don't want to portray that on TV either, you know?"
New episodes of "Giuliana and Bill" begin April 2.