After Double Mastectomy, Food Network Star Sandra Lee Returns to Red Carpet

Sandra Lee made her triumphant return the red carpet at the 2015 Emmy Awards on Sunday night, marking her first public appearance since her breast cancer surgery.

Lee, 49, celebrated being cancer-free by attending the Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles Sunday, wearing a 1970s Thierry Mugler pink gown that she says she owned but had not been able to wear before because of the neckline.

Her last appearance was during a photo shoot in May, when she was rushed to the hospital for complications resulting from her recent double mastectomy.

“The researchers and the doctors and the nurses and the other warriors, not just breast cancer for all cancer, that came before us and that sacrificed their lives so that we could have early detection”, she said.

She then added; ‘She was a private person and I admire her so much.

‘The last infection threw me a bit and I chose to focus and redirect all my energies internally.

Lee, who has been with Cuomo for 10 years, first made a name for herself through her Food Network show, “Semi-Homemade Cooking“, which premiered in 2003. I physically and emotionally just needed to be silent and still while I healed, ‘ wrote Lee.

She took a quick break from social media, but returned to Facebook this past weekend to tell fans about the “unreal chain of events in my life” over the past year. “I am excited to be back now and I do have a few surprise (good ones) coming up very soon!!!” Plus, Sandra – whose cookbook you can buy here – confirmed that the website she promised fans is complete! “I feel so young and liberated”.

“If I would have waited, I probably wouldn’t even be sitting here”, she said on Good Morning America in May.