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Barry Manilow has been open about his long history with cigarettes.
“I smoked for 30 years. I started when I was 9,” the “Copacabana” singer said. The standard in 2012, revealing that he then quit before starting the habit again. Manilow eventually turned to vaping.
In December 2025, Manilow announced that he had been diagnosed with lung cancerfor which smoking is the No. 1 risk factor, according to the CDC.
“As many of you know, I recently suffered six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse for another five weeks. Even though I was cured of the bronchitis and back on stage at Westgate in Las Vegas, my wonderful doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure everything was okay,” he wrote in a statement shared via Instagram. “The MRI discovered a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs to be removed. It was pure luck (and great doctor) that it was discovered so early.”
Manilow added that he would remove the “spot” now that the Christmas dates of his A Gift of Love concert series are over.
“The doctors don’t believe it has spread, and I’m running tests to confirm their diagnosis. So that’s it. No chemo. No radiation. Just chicken soup and I love Lucy rebroadcasts,” he continued, adding that he would need “a month to recover” after the surgery and would therefore have to reschedule his January 2026 tour dates.
Amid Manilow’s battle with cancer, keep scrolling to see everything he’s said about smoking over the years:
Barry Manilow started smoking at age 9
Manilow’s adventure with cigarettes began at a young age while growing up in New York.
“Well, I smoked for 30 years. I started when I was 9. I grew up in Brooklyn,” he said. The evening standard.
Manilow continued: “Then I quit about 15, 20 years ago. Then I just started in Las Vegas and the band and I went to a little club and someone offered me a cigarette. And I was back. Within a week, I was back. Not on a pack a day, because when I was really smoking, I was on three packs a day – no filter. Oh yeah. I was a big smoker.”
Barry Manilow started vaping as an alternative to tobacco
In his interview with The standardManilow revealed that he eventually traded his cigarettes for a vape, which is a device that simulates smoking. Instead of smoke, the user inhales steam. Vapes are often used as an effective tool to help users quit smoking.
“Do they work? They do it for me, my group and my team, all of us who hated smoking but couldn’t quit,” Manilow said of vaping.
Manilow was spotted with his vape pen during a rare outing in Palm Springs, California on December 17, 2025, just days before announcing his cancer diagnosis, photos posted by the Daily Mail.
David Livingston/Getty Images Since going public with his stage III non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in November 2024, Dave Coulier has been candid about his illness, treatment and prognosis ahead of his second diagnosis. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a type of cancer that affects the patient’s lymphatic system, with “white blood cells called lymphocytes.” [that] grow abnormally and may form growths […]
Although vaping is widely considered less harmful than smoking cigarettes, it can still cause inflammation and irritation of the lungs, leading to lung damage, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Barry Manilow says he’s ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’ after multiple health issues
Before his battle with lung cancer, Manilow suffered from bronchial pneumonia, a mouth tumor, heart problems and hip surgery. Additionally, in 2020, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, which was detected and treated early.
“I’m fine, I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’m very old, I shouldn’t be able to do this,” he told the Daily mirror in 2019. “You’ve seen me go up these stairs on stage – there’s 14 steps up and 14 down, you’d think I should be in a wheelchair or something.”
