Mary Jo Buttafuoco is battling breast cancer.
Buttafuoco, 71, became a tabloid fixture in 1992 after being shot in the face by a 17-year-old girl with whom her husband was having a sexual relationship.
The Long Islander told TMZ on Monday that she’s recovering from surgery after a mammogram showed that a “scary” bump in her left breast was from stage 1 ductal carcinoma. Buttafuoco said the cancer was discovered early and she’s on the mend.
“I’ve walked through some incredibly difficult chapters in my life,” she said. “I’ve survived things that I never imagined I would survive.”
According to Buttafuoco, those experiences taught her that life can change quickly, but hard times can also strengthen a person’s resolve. She’s now an author and a motivational speaker.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself after everything I’ve been through, it’s this: I am a survivor, and I will survive this, too,” she told TMZ.
Buttafuoco was shot by Amy Fisher outside her Nassau County home on May 19,1992. The wound paralyzed part of her face and left her deaf in one ear. She told People in 2023 that reconstructive surgery made her able to fully smile again.
Buttafuoco got married again in 2012 in Las Vegas. Her second husband died in 2018. The pair had recently divorced, according to Radar Online.
Fisher, who said she was 16 when she met Joey Buttafuoco, dominated tabloid headlines after the shooting with the moniker “Long Island Lolita.” She spent seven years in prison for shooting Buttafuoco and was released in 1999.
Joey spent four months behind bars after pleading guilty to statutory rape.