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Influencer and TV host Patrice Aminati has been battling terminal melanoma for three years and is trying to hide her illness from her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
Image: IMAGO/Future Image
Patrice Aminati has been living with melanoma for three years. Now, the 31-year-old is speaking more openly than ever about her pain, her thoughts on death—and her greatest fear: having to leave her daughter behind.
“I’m not afraid of death. Although I’m only 31, I’ve already been through a lot and know how hard life can be with worries and pain,” said Patrice Aminati at the “YES!CON” cancer convention in Berlin.
For three years, the influencer and host has been battling terminal melanoma. A cure is currently considered impossible.
“Sometimes I think,” Aminati continued, “that I just want peace. That would be the supposedly easier option. I don’t want to die, but I just want to sleep and be free of pain.”
The one thing Patrice Aminati doesn’t want is to leave her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter behind. At the same time, she says, “No mom should have to bury her own child.”
Despite all the pain caused by the cancer and its treatment, Aminati tries to look ahead positively with whatever strength she has left—also for her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
Spending time with her gives her strength. At the same time, she says, it’s a huge challenge to be a mother and live with a serious illness.
When she’s feeling down, she can hardly hide it from her daughter: “Your child senses how you’re feeling—unfortunately, more than I would have thought.”
Patrice Aminati takes her medication “in secret” every morning and evening. Or so she thought. But while playing, her daughter suddenly said to her toy horses, “Here, you get medicine. Mommy takes a lot of pills, too.”
That moment was a punch in the gut, Aminati says. “At the time, I thought: We can’t fool children. Of course they don’t understand every word, but they sense how you’re feeling.”
It’s an incredibly difficult situation. On the one hand, children give you strength. But when you need care and are in pain, it’s also important to have a support network.
Patrice Aminati was diagnosed with malignant melanoma three years ago. In her words, a complete cure is out of the question.
In December 2025, she announced her separation from her husband, TV host Daniel Aminati.
The Aminatis’ daughter was only six months old when the TV host received her cancer diagnosis. She is all the more grateful to live near her parents, who naturally support her in caring for her daughter.
“I always wanted to be there for her,” Patrice Aminati explained at the “YES!CON” cancer convention in Berlin. She personally didn’t want to take her child to the hospital with her.
When her daughter was a little older, she was very afraid of seeing her again after a hospital stay. Patrice Aminati feared she would seem like a stranger to her daughter. “I didn’t want her to see me that way.”
But when they met in the park, her daughter came up to her “as if not a single second had passed.”
According to her own account, Patrice Aminati has undergone virtually every type of treatment over the past three years—immunotherapies, oral medications, and radiation therapy.
At times, the metastases were held in check, but they kept coming back and eventually spread throughout her entire body: to her brain, lungs, liver, bones, and even her optic nerve.
“Death was drawing ever closer, and it felt as if the water were slowly rising and would eventually drown me,” says Patrice Aminati.
He continues: “It became especially bad when I could suddenly feel the metastases myself. I could feel lumps on my abdomen and arms. The disease was no longer just visible in images or in doctors’ reports—it was real and tangible.”
One evening, Patrice Aminati lay in bed filled with fear, knelt down, and prayed: “Please help me. I have a little daughter; she shouldn’t have to grow up without her mom.”
The next day, Aminati received a call from her doctor, who told her about a new medication. The chances of improvement were slim, she said, but it was worth a try.
After just a few days, the treatment took effect and the tumor burden decreased. “For me, that was a turning point. Although I used to be neither religious nor spiritual, today I am infinitely grateful for this second chance.”
Influencer and host Patrice Aminati was awarded the “Ring of Courage” at the “YES!CON” cancer convention in Berlin, honoring her commitment to breaking the taboo surrounding cancer as well as her dedication to education and prevention.
23.06.2026, 14:49
23.06.2026, 15:35
