Nicole Eggert has faced cancer and 'Baywatch bimbo' backlash. Now she feels fearless.

Ask Nicole Eggert what makes her feel like a badass, and she laughs. “I never feel like I've got this,” she tells me. “I always feel like I'm just winging it as I go along.”

But ask her what she’s unapologetic about — this is, after all, Yahoo Life’s Unapologetically series — and she doesn’t hesitate. “I think it's really important that I unapologetically love on myself now.”

A lot of that has to do with her breast cancer diagnosis in 2023. Eggert — best known for roles in Charles in Charge and Baywatch — is currently on targeted therapy after undergoing chemotherapy, radiation and a mastectomy. While the process has been grueling, it’s also given her a new sense of “fearlessness” she didn’t have pre-diagnosis.

“I spent so many years picking my body apart, picking myself apart, and all of a sudden one day I realized, This body is what makes me be able to have a day. This body is what makes me get up and be able to be sad or be happy, to be able to laugh. This body works hard for me every day, and I'm sitting there criticizing it,” the actress, host of the Perfectly Twisted podcast and advocate for Susan G. Komen and the American Cancer Society, tells me over Zoom.

But she’s had it with that mentality. “I just have never loved myself more — and my body looks crazy right now!” the 53-year-old mom of two says with a laugh. “My body looks crazy, and I love every bit of it and I am so thankful to it.”

Below, Eggert sounds off on shaking off the “Baywatch bimbo” label, going into menopause and being open to dating (so long as she can have her own bedroom).

When I was growing up, you were the teen star ideal. When did you realize that people treated you differently?

I think when we were shooting Charles in Charge. … That's when things started to click that people were watching the show, people recognized me, people were looking at me differently. And it was hard, because those are pretty awkward years. When you're a teenager like that, you're pretty self-conscious and you're growing and your hormones are crazy. I was in those years of [thinking], “Nobody look at me, I'm so embarrassed about everything.” And yet you're on this TV show, and everybody's looking at you everywhere you go.

Did that change when you got a little older and did Baywatch?

Baywatch just kind of took it worldwide. Baywatch was a funny time for me because I took acting seriously, and then all of a sudden, I was on the show that, on one hand, is the No. 1 show in the world. And on the other hand, it's just getting ripped in the press. We didn't have great reputations, and the same opportunities weren't there anymore [because of] being associated with that show. So my focus was more on like, How do I get away from this and how do I navigate this and still be taken seriously in this world of Baywatch?

It was “Baywatch bimbos” and “Baywatch babes” back then. It was just really hard to escape. So that was sort of a frustrating time of being acknowledged, because [the attention] was a little bit more negative. It was more of like a bimbo thing. [I felt like] Wait a minute, don't throw me into that. I was a little defensive about it. And so it was kind of harsh when I switched over to Baywatch and was being called a bimbo and stuff. And it was like, I couldn't [farther] from that.

What with Pamela Anderson emerging with this new image, does it seem like people are looking back at that time and being like, Oh, we shouldn't have called these women bimbos?

Definitely. I mean, it's taken a lot of years, but it was “Baywatch bimbos” and then it was “Baywatch babes” and now it's “Baywatch icons.” … I think people look back with appreciation, and although they criticized it at the time, now you look back at it and it reminds you of fond memories … and you can reminisce with it. And that's sort of why I produced the documentary on Baywatch, because I wanted to reintroduce people to who the actors were and that they were people with stories and lives … that were so heavily affected by the show. At the time, everybody was thrown into just this sea of hair and boobs and beautiful bodies.

When you really look at it, [the show’s characters] were lifeguards. … They're wearing what lifeguards wear on the beach. It wasn't like it was exaggerated or anything like that. I mean, I don't think Pamela's body was like what most average lifeguards look like, to be fair, but the rest of us, we very much look like what you would see if you go to a beach in Southern California; this is what lifeguards look like.

Now that everybody's opening their mind a bit more these days, I think you can kind of see what it was supposed to be. It turned into [something] fluffier than we would've liked. But it started out to be a true depiction of beautiful Southern California beaches and their lifeguards.

You were diagnosed with invasive cribriform carcinoma of the breast in 2023. Where are you in your cancer journey now?

I have finished chemotherapy for now. I finished radiation. I've had one mastectomy. I'm having the other at the end of the month. And I am on targeted therapy because it is in my lymphatic system. So I'm on a lot of heavy-duty hormone blockers, which are pretty intense. We’re just really trying to keep it at bay.

And is it true that, when you first started experiencing symptoms, you suspected you were going into menopause?

I just didn't know. I mean, you rationalize these things … It’s such a waiting game, so once you feel the lump, you have all this time before you have any answers. So you try to say, “It could be my high estrogen,” “It could be because it's menopause,” “It could be hormones” … you hope for all of these things until you get the bad news.

Has this changed your perspective on aging at all, as someone who is in that phase of life where menopause starts and your body changes?

Oh, for sure. I had to look at menopause right in the face because chemo threw me right into it. … I wasn't even pre-menopausal [before treatment]. I was still getting my monthly [periods] regularly. So it just brought it on sooner, and it was like, Oh God, do I have to go through this too? But in a way, [you think] Let's just get it all over with.

It makes you just look at the body a little bit differently. It definitely takes the emotional side out of it. I'm not emotional about it at all. I don't feel sad. I have my babies. I had my kids and I don't want any more. I am happy to be on the other side of it.

I think it's really important. It's amazing how many people are embarrassed or ashamed when they get diagnosed. What I got out of it was that I got to show people who I am and that there's more to me, and this is what I'm going through as a human being and a mother. And then for other people, it's to show them that I'm just like you and we are alike, and you can come to my page and you can not feel alone. Because the great thing about sharing on social media is that people who keep it a secret and don't talk about it, they can go [online] and feel like they're being heard. It's helpful to people who aren't that open about it in their public life, because a lot of people do keep it quiet.

Keeping it quiet wasn't me because I feel like, if I've learned anything at all, it's that keeping things quiet can make you sick. It adds to your sickness. The more I'm open and the more I am at peace with what's happening, the healthier I'm going to be. The truth is, you can be in support groups, I can do all my research, I can talk to all the doctors. But there's nothing like opening up the conversation for women who are also going through it in real time or have gone through it. … It’s saved me.

You’ve never been married. Is that something you’d ever consider, or has being a single mom for so long made you comfortable being on your own?

I definitely would be more open to it as I get older. I wasn’t when I was younger. I've always been very independent. I like my space. Even now, I feel like if I were to find something, I really hope they would want maybe their own house, and I have my own house. Or if we live in the same house, they have their own room and bathroom and closet, and I have mine. I like my peace and I like my quiet, but I'm not opposed to sharing this journey and having a life partner.

And I have a lot of love to give, so I am open to it. My youngest is 13 now, so my eyes are opening up a little bit more to that. Before, I was being two parents for both of my girls and there was not really a lot of time for dating and distraction. And I love hard. I really needed to focus on my life and my girls and being there being for them. … Now I'm getting some independence and I have free time, so I am warming up to that idea more.

Well, maybe someone will read this…

And ask me out! The truth is, I don't get asked out anymore. Probably my energy doors have been closed, so it's like, no wonder it hasn't happened. But I'm slowly starting to peek out the window. I'm opening the blinds. … Some people are meant to have a life partner early and to rely on somebody. And that works for a lot of people, but it just wasn't how I was built.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.