‘The Crown’ Actress Says She'll Never Be Cancer-Free After Receiving Late Diagnosis

Olivia Williams, who played Camilla Parker Bowles for two seasons, was diagnosed with VIPoma, a rare form of pancreatic cancer, in 2018.

Olivia Williams at a photo call for the film 'Another End' presented in competition at the 74th Berlinale in Berlin on Feb. 17, 2024. John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images

British actress Olivia Williams, known for playing Camilla Parker Bowles in the final two seasons of Netflix’s historical drama series “The Crown,” has shared a stark health update amid her yearslong battle with VIPoma, a rare form of pancreatic cancer.

Speaking to The Times in an interview published on April 19, Williams, 56, said she'll likely never be free from cancer after her tumor spread to her liver—the result of a late diagnosis.

“If someone had [expletive] well diagnosed me in the four years I’d been saying I was ill, when they told me I was menopausal or had irritable bowel syndrome or [was] crazy—I used that word advisedly because one doctor referred me for a psychiatric assessment—then one operation possibly could have cleared the whole thing and I could describe myself as cancer-free, which I cannot now ever be,” she told the publication.

Williams began suffering an array of chronic symptoms at age 46, including painful limbs, diarrhea, and fatigue. She spent the next four years in and out of doctors’ offices, seeking advice from nearly a dozen specialists in three countries.

In addition to perimenopause and IBS, Williams had also been incorrectly diagnosed with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease. She finally received the correct diagnosis in 2018, when a Los Angeles-based gastroenterologist discovered the cancerous tumor in her pancreas.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, VIPoma typically develops in the endocrine cells of the pancreas, although it is possible for the tumors to arise in other organs, such as the lungs, bowel, and adrenal glands.

In the United States, only about 1 in every 10 million people are diagnosed with the slow-growing disease, which is characterized by chronic diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fatigue, abdominal cramps, and weak muscles.

Treatment plans vary from person to person but may include medication and surgery to remove the tumor. UF Health reports that the latter is especially effective in treating VIPoma, but only if the tumor hasn’t spread to other parts of the body.

“It takes an average person with my cancer 11 visits to the [general practitioner] to be diagnosed. For me it was probably about 21 times,” Williams told The Times. “What could change that is early detection with a test that could be as simple as breathing into a bag at your GP. We’re incredibly close, we just need to get it over the line.”

Living With Cancer

In the wake of her diagnosis, Williams—who has served as an ambassador for the nonprofit Pancreatic Cancer UK since 2019—has undergone a splenectomy, which is the removal of the spleen. She has also had a distal pancreatectomy, a procedure that involves removing the body and tail of the pancreas.

“Her operation left Olivia dependent on Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy (PERT), simple, inexpensive medication she must take every time she eats otherwise her body cannot digest food to absorb nutrients,” Pancreatic Cancer UK notes on its website.

“As a survivor of a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (PancNET) and someone who has lost a dear friend to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), Olivia knows the devastating impact a diagnosis of cancer in this little known and hard to access part of the body can have–and how punishing the surgery can be.”

Discussing her cancer battle in a November 2024 interview with The Guardian, Williams said that only a third of her pancreas is now functioning following the surgery to remove her original tumor.

The actress said the metastases—tumors that spread to other organs—are only affecting her liver as of now, which doctors have been treating with targeted internal radiotherapy, per The Times.

“It was quite obviously bad news to find I had a 7 by 4 centimeter tumor in my pancreas, but it was really [expletive] awful news that it had gone to my liver, which is the problem now,” she said. “The primary cancer they cut out hasn’t come back ... but the liver ones keep popping up.”

Williams, who launched her acting career in the early 1990s, later garnering her breakout role in the 1999 psychological thriller “The Sixth Sense,” hasn’t let her 2018 diagnosis keep her from her work.

She has since starred in a variety of films, including “The Father” (2020) and “Another End” (2024), as well as television shows such as “Counterpart,” “The Nevers,” “Funny Woman,” “Dune: Prophecy,” and “The Wheel of Time.”

Williams married actor Rhashan Stone in 2003. The couple has two daughters, Esmé Stone, 21, and Roxana May Stone, 18.