Bates told NBC's "Today" show that she's been "in total remission" for five and a-half years.
She says she kept her diagnosis a secret because she "just needed to go through it." She wouldn't even let her friends come with her to her chemotherapy treatments.
She now regrets staying silent and has taped a PSA for the Ovarian Cancer Foundation. She urges women to get tested because "early detection is the key." She says she was "so lucky to find it early."
