Friends star reveals daughter, 25, has received frightening diagnosis

Actress Lauren Tom has announced the ‘tough news’ this week that her ‘beautiful daughter’ Elia, aka Ellie, is suffering from cancer.

Ellie has received a diagnosis of osteosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of bone cancer that most often occurs in young adults and teenagers.

Tom, 64, who is beloved by Friends fans as Ross’s season two girlfriend Julie, wrote on Instagram that ‘my family and I are doing everything we can to aid in her healing.’

Invoking the famous Mr Rogers quote: ‘Look for the helpers,’ she thanked her friends and relations as well as her daughter’s doctors and nurses at Cedars Sinai ‘for their ongoing boundless support, love, and care’ amid the health crisis.

‘Ellie is an amazing, deep, sensitive, wise, strong, brave, intelligent, and funny soul. Beautiful inside and out,’ wrote the Illinois native.

She requested that readers pray for Ellie and share well-wishes on Instagram, thanked fans for their ‘support’ and closed her caption with a trans flag.

The Daily Mail has contacted Tom’s representative for further comment. 

Actress Lauren Tom has announced the ‘tough news’ this week that her ‘beautiful daughter’ Elia, aka Ellie, is suffering from cancer

Tom, 64, who is beloved by Friends fans as Ross’s season two girlfriend Julie, wrote on Instagram that ‘my family and I are doing everything we can to aid in her healing.’

‘It is truly humbling to see how willing people are to reach out and help,’ observed Tom, who shares Ellie with her husband of nearly 27 years Curt Kaplan.

‘We have a long journey ahead of us.. would you be so kind to keep Ellie in your prayers for a complete recovery, and perhaps leave a comment for her here, or on her account? @eliatom_,’ she added.

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Tom led by example, sharing a loving comment under a recent Instagram post by Ellie, who had written: ‘the most ephemeral part of my surroundings is me.’

‘You are strong, brave and will recover from this completely to live a beautiful, meaningful life,’ her mother wrote under Ellie’s upload. ‘You are so loved, Ellie, by everyone who knows you. Especially the loaches…’

On her own page, Tom’s post about Ellie’s diagnosis was flooded with warm comments including from Ken Jeong, who wrote: ‘Sending all our love and prayers for Ellie. Anything we can do let us know. Love you.’

Ming Na-Wen, the voice of Mulan in Disney’s animated classic, wrote: ‘Praying for Ellie and keeping all of your family in our thoughts and prayers, sis! Love you!’

As the messages rolled in, Tom wrote: ‘Thank you all so much for this overwhelming outpouring of love, support, and prayers. We have read each comment, and are filled with graтιтude that you are holding us in your hearts.’ 

Tom’s well-known roles include the principal character Lena St Clair in The Joy Luck Club, the 1993 film of the bestselling 1989 novel of the same name by Amy Tan.

She has been married to her husband Curt Kaplan (back, left) since 1999 and along with Ellie they share a 22-year-old son called Leo (front, second from left)

She has also enjoyed a steady career in TV voice acting, playing Amy Wong on Futurama and the mother and daughter Minh and Connie on King of the Hill.

Her more recent live action roles have included the тιтle character’s grandmother on the Disney Channel series Andi Mack, as well as Mrs Tran on two seasons of the hit CW series Supernatural starring Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki.

Tom hails from a prominent business family – her grandfather Tom Y Chan was a vigorous fundraiser for the Chinese Nationalist cause and her uncle Ping Tom now has a park named after him in Chicago’s Chinatown.

She herself grew up near Chicago and launched her acting career on the stage at the age of 17, joining the touring company and then the Broadway cast of A Chorus Line. 

Tom and her husband, who is also an actor, have been married since October 1999 and in addition to Ellie have a son called Leo, 22.

She has spoken honestly about the trials of parenting, particularly her attempts not to allow her own success-oriented nature to transfer over in excess to her children.

‘I think you can’t help but just model behavior because I certainly consciously did not parent them in a way that they would become kind of perfectionists. I wish that I could dial that down in them because I wish I could dial it down myself,’ she said in 2019.

‘It’s not a great quality. I mean it’s good in the sense that you keep trying and you keep striving for excellence. That’s fine. But when it clicks over into feeling like you’re just not enough—at that point, it gets a little dangerous,’ Tom told Your Teen.

Regarding Ellie, then known as Oliver, Tom said: ‘I’ve had to struggle to try to get my older one to just relax and enjoy because he just wants to be an adult so badly.’

She noted: ‘I do think that it’s the modeling that means more than any words that we say to kids. That camera is on 24/7 – they’re watching us all the time. I try to be more conscious of how I am – we have to model the behavior that we want.’