Bill Rancic on Amy Robach's Public Cancer Battle: 'She is Going To Save Lives'
Nov. 12, 2013— -- "Good Morning America's" Amy Robach revealed on Monday that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and that on Nov. 14, she will undergo a bilateral mastectomy followed by reconstructive surgery.
For a woman who had her first mammogram on air on Oct. 1 for "GMA" Goes Pink day, it must have been a complete shock.
Robach, 40, admitted that she is "gearing up for a fight" and that she is as "mentally and physically as prepared as anyone can be in this situation."
Robach married former "Melrose Place" star Andrew Shue in 2010 and only someone who's been through what he must be going through right now can imagine seeing the love of your life battle this disease.
Read: ABC New's Amy Robach Reveals Breast Cancer Diagnosis
One person is Bill Rancic, whose wife Giuliana, also a TV personality for E! with a platform to raise cancer awareness, announced her breast cancer diagnosis in October 2011 and had a double mastectomy a couple months later.
ABC News spoke with Rancic on Monday as part of the finals for Small Business Big Game, a competition he's championing. The competition will eventually award one small business with its own 30-second Super Bowl advertisement.
"I applaud Amy for her bravery," he said. "She chose the harder path and she did it for a reason. She's using her platform wisely. It's not easy. We've been through it. It's a lot easier to just go quietly and cry in the closet and not let anyone know. The fact that she's doing this, she is going to save lives."
The season 1 winner of "The Apprentice" added that while his wife has droves of fans who love her on "E! News" and "Fashion Police," Giuliana's real legacy is, as will be Robach's, is the women they inspire to get tested.
"Your legacy will be you've saved so many lives in the process," he said of Robach. "With breast cancer, it's all about early detection. If you catch it early, you have a 98% chance it will never come back. If she can get one woman to go in and get a mammogram because of her actions and what she did today. That's a pretty fulfilled life!"
Related: Giuliana Rancic says 'Duke's Been My Salvation' After Breast Cancer
As the spouse of someone who has gone through the cancer battle and come out on the other side, Rancic had some words of wisdom for Shue.
"As the spouse, you have to wear a lot of hats," he said. "You become a short order cook and comedian and the motivational speaker in the family. And the male nurse. Giuliana was calling me Greg Focker for a long time. The best role a caregiver can play is helping the spouse make the right decision. For me, it was taking the emotion out of the decision making process and arming her with knowledge. We were making decisions on knowledge and getting the guidance and the help from the experts out there."
In fact, Rancic made sure to tell his wife that all he cared about was her being in his life for years to come and that nothing else mattered.
"I said to her 'Honey, I don't care what you look like, I just need you around for the next 50 years,'" he said. "It was a sigh of relief. As a woman, when you have to go in for a double mastectomy, it's scary and you're going to lose some of you, and to me that didn't even matter."
Note: To vote on the final four companies -- Locally Laid Egg Company, Dairy Poop, Barley Labs and GoldieBlox -- visit Intuit's Small Business Big Game and pick which small business you believe deserves a spot during the Super Bowl.
