‘Alaskan Bush People’: Mom Ami’s Cancer Diagnosis ‘Just Breaks Our Hearts,’ Her Brother Says
The confirmation, months after rumors began circulating that the Alaskan Bush People matriarch, Ami Brown, is undergoing treatment for late-stage cancer, has plunged the entire family into crisis.
As Ami struggles with her health condition and the family struggles through trying times, Les Branson, Ami’s long-estranged brother, told Radar Online that he and his 84-year-old mother, Earlene Branson, who has not seen her daughter in about three decades, were “deeply saddened” by the shocking news of her illness.
“This just breaks our hearts. It breaks my mother’s heart,” Les said, according to Radar Online.
“The hardest part is that she’s dying, and we can’t get through to see her.”
Les said that Earlene, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, is a fan of Alaskan Bush People. According to Les, Earlene “watches every single episode” of the reality-documentary series which follows the lives of the Brown family, including Billy, his wife Ami, and seven children, in the remote Alaskan wilderness.
However, she has found the most recent episodes in which Ami’s cancer diagnosis was revealed very distressing, Les said.
“The recent ones with Ami’s cancer are so upsetting to her. She is very distraught about it.”
Alaskan Bush People Grapple with Mom Ami's Lung Cancer Diagnosis: 'I Can't Fix It … I'm Useless' https://t.co/MRd6F3avV9 via @people
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Les has also not spoken to his 53-year-old little sister since she married Billy Brown, 64, in Texas, on June 16, 1979, when she was only 15 years old.
Billy had broken the news about his wife’s illness to his seven children during a recent episode of Alaskan Bush People. Speaking gravely, he described his wife’s condition as “not good.”
“It’s not good at all. They’ve got to do some more tests and stuff and what they can see is stage 3 cancer,” he said. “She could easily be stage 4.”
Fans believed there was reason to fear that Ami’s condition had deteriorated even further when the network began rehashing previously aired footage without giving updates on Ami’s condition.
Alaskan Bush People Family Suffers 'Unimaginable Crisis' as Mom Ami and Son Matt Are Hospitalized https://t.co/sL1PY9EVO7 via @people
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Billy had expressed sadness in a previous episode about having to close their Browtown homestead in the wilderness and move to California to be with Ami. However, fans of the reality TV series were upset to see the patriarch apparently torn between his wife and his life in the wilderness.
After Ami’s diagnosis, only Matt and Noah were left in Browntown, and Billy appeared to have second thoughts about having to close down Browntown so that the entire family could be with Ami to support her in her fight against cancer.
“I don’t know how I’m going to live without it,” he said.
Many fans thought that Billy’s reaction was selfish and that he was making the situation about himself rather than about his wife.
[Featured Image by Discovery Channel]
