Entertainment

Big Ang Will Show Her Cancer Battle On 'Mob Wives'

by Kayla Hawkins

Season 6 of Mob Wives, subtitled The Last Stand, will give the Staten Island royalty one final chance to go at one another before the show leaves TV once and for all. And since the season will cover events that happened over 2015, will Angela "Big Ang" Raiola's cancer treatment feature in the show? Big Ang found out that she had throat cancer earlier in 2015, with TMZ breaking the news when she was hospitalized in April in order to get emergency surgery. According to Entertainment Tonight, Big Ang had serious surgery in May and June that removed all of the lymph nodes and cancerous tumors in her throat. She was briefly cancer-free, but sadly, ET reported that Raiola's cancer returned in December 2015, after Mob Wives' final season finished filming.

As seen in the supersized season trailer, the show will go into Big Ang's experiences with cancer, as she first finds out about the diagnosis, has to choose a treatment plan, and tells everyone else the news. It doesn't seem like she's going to shy away from showing every part of the painful and emotional journey. And it looks like Big Ang processed the upsetting news with her signature good humor and aggressive personality.

But Big Ang opened up more to ET, telling them that even though she may put on a brave face on Mob Wives, she made some big changes when she received the news. "I didn't think I would ever be able to quit smoking in my life," she said, "I stopped the day I found out." So that's one positive change she was able to make as a result of the diagnosis. She also spoke to People, saying that though her husband Neil stuck by her side, "cancer puts a lot of pressure on your marriage."

I'd also say that judging from the preview, she had no patience for having anyone who isn't a positive influence in her life anymore, which probably means that this being the end of Mob Wives is a good thing. While some of her castmates have offered a sympathetic retweet, it doesn't seem like any of them are particularly close with Ang — instead, they're far more interested in tearing one another apart.

And on Twitter, Big Ang has been promoting the upcoming final season with positivity and love for the cast and crew, so it seems that she's still proud of her work on the show. And according to a Tweet she sent out recently, she's taking this challenge of her illness "one day at a time."

Big Ang has such a dramatic and outrageous personality that she'll be a major force in the sixth and final season of Mob Wives, no matter what is going on in her life. But judging from the changes that she's made recently and the sad news that she's once again battling the disease, any fans of the Staten Island matriarch should be happy that she's now taking some time off from reality TV and can focus on her health.