Actress Marcia Cross has linked her anal cancer to her husband's throat cancer.

In 2006, actress Marcia Cross married stockbroker Tom Mahoney in a beautiful wedding in California.

It was both of their first marriage at age 44 and 48, and a year later the couple welcomed twin girls to their family.

Cross told People magazine this blissful family perfection become a reality for her after the “longest wait in history”.

Marcia Cross talking to People about her cancer. Post continues after video.

But three years after their wedding day, Mahoney was diagnosed with throat cancer, and eight years after that Cross was diagnosed with anal cancer.

In a new interview with CBS, Cross has revealed doctors suspect that Cross’ cancer and Mahoney’s came from the same type of human papillomavirus, known as HPV.

HPV can be transferred through having vaginal, anal or oral sex with someone who has the virus.

Early immunisation is key to preventing the virus, something Cross will be doing for her now 12-year-old girls at the end of the school year.

 

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My babies turned TWELVE today. #dreamscometrue #love #timeflies #grateful

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In 2010, Cross said her husband was “100 per cent clear” of his cancer, little did she know it was only the start of the family’s battle with the insidious disease.

Cross, now 57, has revealed she found out about her cancer during a routine digital rectum exam while visiting her gynaecologist.

“I was so not thinking anything was wrong because I didn’t have any symptoms, and she gave me an exam and came around and said, ‘Well, I just want you to know, whatever it is it’s curable,'” Cross told CBS This Morning. “It was like ‘What? What are you talking about?’.”

During treatment, Cross says her ‘anal angels’ got her through the dark days, with the Desperate Housewives star referring to her girlfriends who rallied around her.

“I kept saying, if this doesn’t kill me, it’s the best thing that could’ve ever happened because the experience of being loved like that — it blew my mind,” she told CBS. 

Cross has decided to speak out about her disease because of the shame attached to her particular type of cancer.

She admits it even took her awhile to freely be able to say the world “anus”.

 

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Happy day in the woods! #healthy #happy #grateful #nofilter #nofacelift #nophotoshop

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“I know that there are people who are ashamed,” she said on the show. “You have cancer. Should you then also feel like ashamed like you did something bad because it took up residence in your anus?”

Cross has completed radiation and chemotherapy and has joined her husband in remission.

While she says she is back to normal, she admits it’s a “new normal”.

“I’m the girl who goes to the bathroom now, and I go, ‘Yes! It’s great what my body can do!’ I’m so grateful,” she said.