Marnie Schulenburg, best known for her role of Jo Sullivan on the One Life to Live reboot and Alison Stewart on As the World Turns, has recently passed away at the young age of 37. She died after being diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer just two years ago, in 2020.

She and her husband, Zack Robidas, who plays the role of Mark Ravenhead on HBO’s Succession, were married in September 2013 and share their 2-year-old daughter, Coda. Robidas says he doesn’t like when people refer to his wife dying as “losing her battle to cancer” because she fought a long, hard battle, and she did it with grace.

“Please don’t say Marnie lost her battle to cancer. It’s simply not true. I watched her kick cancer’s ass everyday since diagnosis,” he said. “She is incredible. We chose to attack her diagnosis with blind optimism. We only talked about the future and continued moving forward. I don’t know if this was right but it’s all we knew how to do.”

Marie was she was diagnosed with cancer on May 8, 2020, just five months after Coda was born in December 2019. That same month, she had posted about her feelings on having cancer.

 

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“Zack and I vacillate between utter devastation and fierce determination,” she said. The narrative of the life we signed on for the day we married will never be the same. Now we must adjust, stay present and f—— fight.”

Not long before she died, Marnie had posted a bittersweet post on Mother’s Day about how she did get to go home, but only with an oxygen machine.

It’s not my ideal to be a 38-year-old Mom who needs an oxygen tank to survive right now,” the post stated. “I want to be strong and beautiful for her. I want to show her how to move throughout this world with compassion, strength, vivacity, humor and joy like my Mother showed me.”

She also wrote: “My chances of sticking around her better each month that goes by. So here’s to remembering that nothing is permanent. To soaking up the imperfections and that the best thing you can do for your child is make them feel loved, safe and supported just like my mother did for me. Screw the oxygen mask, just remember how to breathe.”

You can learn more about her diagnosis and life in the video below.