A Devastating Cancer Diagnosis

Jazz Gitti: “If I’d waited, everything would be different”

Following the shocking diagnosis, the popular singer finds support in her husband and manager, Roman Bogner.(Bild: APA-Images / Andreas Tischler)

She’s a cheerful person and, as of now, also a source of motivation and encouragement, because Jazz Gitti recently learned that she has skin cancer—a malignant form, at that. The “Krone” knows the details and spoke with her and her husband and manager, Roman Bogner—and knows how this charming Viennese woman is coping with the diagnosis.

You simply have to like and love this woman—and there’s hardly anyone in the whole country who doesn’t know her, and above all, absolutely no one who doesn’t like and appreciate her. Jazz Gitti has long since become something of a living cultural treasure, and on social media, too, the 80-year-old artist and her husband and manager, Roman Bogner, have long since taken off with their nearly 60,000 followers.

Malignant Form of Cancer
But recently, something has happened that has shaken even this cheerful soul. Gitti, as everyone affectionately calls her, has cancer. “It’s Merkel cell carcinoma,” Bogner explains in an interview with *Krone* about the shocking diagnosis that shook both of them to their core. Although she—whose real name is Martha Butbul—took it in a more positive light: “That’s just her way; she’s taken it almost too ‘lightly,’ as the doctors have also told her,” Bogner continues.

Following the shocking diagnosis, the popular singer found support in her husband and manager, Roman Bogner.(Bild: APA-Images / Andreas Tischler)

Together, they’ve been visiting several hospitals over the past few weeks; then the surgery took place, and since then they’ve been waiting for the affected and operated-on area on her elbow—where she recently noticed a foreign object—to heal.

“If it had been a month later,” the doctors said, “things would have looked very different!”

Jazz Gittis Mann und Manager Roman Bogner

“Another surgery still needs to take place, but above all, the affected area needs to heal so that we can hopefully begin radiation therapy in about six weeks. But we can already say that Gitti was incredibly lucky,” he says. He continues: “Because this type of cancer is truly malignant and has an 80 percent fatality rate if it isn’t detected in time.”

In early June, the Austrian legend posted this video and showed her surgical scar:

“That’s also why I’m asking everyone to go for preventive checkups. And if you notice something about your body that’s suddenly changed or seems strange, please go see a doctor,” Gitti said in her appeal to everyone.

Jazz Gitti recently celebrated her 80th birthday—and now she has received this shocking diagnosis.(Bild: krone.tv )

“Whether you’re a fan or not,” she said, once again expressing her great love for humanity, “if I had waited, everything would have been different.” It all started with a stye-like growth—a foreign body that formed on her elbow. “But Gitti is the kind of person who doesn’t hesitate and goes straight to the doctor,” Roman Bogner tells us, “If the doctors had said ‘one month later,’ everything would have turned out very differently.”

No exhausting appointments
What’s next? You can count on Jazz Gitti being her old self and staying that way: a real life-brightener and now also a source of encouragement. The next few weeks will be devoted to recovery so that radiation treatment can begin, but there will still be performances—“Just definitely nothing too strenuous,” the dynamic duo adds.

The “Krone” wishes her a full and speedy recovery.