Carmel Sepuloni on being cancer-free and why she kept it a secret

Saturday, 30 May 2026

EXCLUSIVE: Labour deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni kept her cancer a secret from the world, and even her parents and children, for more than a year-and-a-half before she decided on a whim to post it on social media.

It was important for Sepuloni to share her journey only after being declared cancer-free ‒ saying the idea of a media stand up to talk about her health while it was uncertain was her “worst nightmare”, she said in an interview with The Post.

The slow-growing tumorous cancer found on her right kidney in October 2024 was low-risk due to its early detection.

“Even when they say it's low risk, I think we all have a fear of the C word, cancer.”

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She kept it private, confiding only in a small circle: a few close colleagues and friends, her husband, eldest sons, Labour leader Chris Hipkins, Labour’s chief of staff and the senior whip.

“I didn't want [my family] to worry unnecessarily. You hear the word cancer, and even if the medical experts are telling you that it's low risk … they're going to think the worst.”

Her plan was to “battle through” and see how it played out before making any decision to go public ‒ and if she didn’t have to, she wouldn’t.

Her post to Instagram on Thursday morning came exactly one year after she had the surgery to remove the tumour.

With it being her 49th birthday too, she said she found herself reflecting with her husband on the year that had been ‒ a moment of perspective that led her to decide it was time to share her story.

Sepuloni was told by her GP she was a “very lucky woman” to have her cancer detected at such an early stage after, it showed up in a CT scan to investigate unrelated stomach pain.

If she had not had the scan, it could have gone undetected for another decade without any symptoms, she said.

Having survived an ectopic pregnancy health scare in 2020 that nearly claimed her life, Sepuloni is vigilant about investigating any health concerns, and what turned out to be an innocent cyst on her pancreas led to the discovery of a three-centimetre tumour on her kidney.

“There was always going to be the risk that they'd need to take the whole kidney because it was quite central to the kidney.”

She scheduled the surgery during a three-week recess block, and took one week off during a sitting block due to not being able to fly post-surgery.

“I don't think anyone noticed that I wasn't here … if I'd been away for two weeks in a row, people would have been asking where I was.”

She has been cancer-free since February this year

She calls herself lucky, saying in some ways it was a “boring story” given she didn’t have to endure the challenging treatment so many others went through.

“I got the scare, I had to get something removed, had to take a little bit of time off, obviously had a bit of ongoing uncertainty, but I certainly did not have to go through the mission of treatment that I've seen so many others have to,” she said.

“My big fear was actually having to endure the radiation and chemotherapy, because I've seen so many have to take that really difficult journey. So, I was very fortunate.”

Her message to women is to constantly be in tune of your body and get regular health checks if anything seems abnormal.

She told her youngest children and her parents about her cancer on Thursday.

“When I told my 13-year-old yesterday, he was just blown away by the fact that I'd had this, but that I was okay, but he was quite relaxed.”

After she was diagnosed she confided in Labour MP Jan Tinetti, who had breast cancer, saying it was a relief to be able to have a conversation with someone who actually understood where she was coming from.

She recalled the time the pair joked about her being lopsided if they took out her kidney, with her right fallopian tube already taken out from the ectopic pregnancy.

Humour, she said, was a good way to cope.

Sepuloni is the MP for Kelston and Labour spokesperson for Auckland Issues, Women, and Pacific Peoples.

She entered Parliament in 2008, working previously in the tertiary sector as a literacy educator, student mentor adviser, equity manager and Pacific health research project manager.

This week she said on social media it had been a big year, both with her cancer and the death of her father. Her father died without finding out about her cancer.

“Although I celebrate my good health I still mourn the passing of my dad - who left us a month ago.”