When actress Lyndie Greenwood was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2024, she was on a roll making Hallmark movies, having just co-starred in Hallmark Mystery’s “Crimetime: Freefall” with Luke Macfarlane. It was her fifth movie role at the network since 2021, but her work as an actress came to an abrupt halt as she began an intense cancer treatment plan in the fall, including a double mastectomy and chemotherapy.
“I haven’t been able to work during this time,” Greenwood, 42, wrote in a blog update on April 8, 2025. “In most ways – because I have enough savings and a comfortable home with a supportive partner – this has been an unbelievable blessing. I imagine sometimes how difficult this would be if those things weren’t true, and it shatters my heart.”
But Greenwood, married to producer Ben Jamieson for six years, admitted it’s also been hard to step back from acting and adjusting to her new normal, writing, “No one is ever prepared for cancer. It’s not something we’re taught how to deal with in advance. Coping with everything that a cancer diagnosis ignites in your life is not something that comes naturally, whether it’s your diagnosis or that of someone you love.”
Lyndie Greenwood Says Cancer Journey is Too Unpredictable to Have Taken On New Hallmark Movies
In her latest blog post, Greenwood expressed gratitude for having the ability to focus on treatment and healing, “but in some ways,” she wrote, “it has been emotionally taxing to not have work – and my savings won’t last forever. I would have loved the distraction on the days that it was physically possible, but acting doesn’t really work that way. You’re all in, or you’re out. And the logistics of cancer come first when trying to organize one’s life-schedule.”
Noting that it’s been the longest stretch of time she’s ever stayed at home, not traveling for a project, the “Girlfriendship” star wrote, “I’ve had nothing but time to stew and to worry and to pull my hair out (literally), and to also find ways to learn and to ground and to hope and to laugh.”
Greenwood shared that, to feel productive each day, she made two goals for herself in 2025. First, she wrote, “to write something everyday (even just a sentence)” and, second, “to meditate everyday (even for just a minute).”
“Being able to check these tiny, achievable things off my to-do list gives me a sense of accomplishment each day, but it also helps me to fully relax,” Greenwood shared. “Like if I do just those little things I said I would do, then I can justify doing ‘nothing’ else. As if one needs to justify simply existing. But I am not immune to our cultural standard of worth = productivity, even as I am trying to be more conscious of it.”
Lyndie Greenwood Thought Her Acting Days Were Over in 2021
In 2021, before Greenwood landed a supporting role in her first Hallmark movie, “Every Time a Bell Rings” starring her longtime friend Erin Cahill, the actress had decided to give up on acting.
Writing on her blog that she was “miserable” and not booking any new acting jobs, Greenwood quit — and the freedom it provided seemed to usher in a new era of opportunity for her.
“I quit, and the simple act of doing so immediately brightened my mood,” she wrote. “It felt like I gained control of my life again. I had been spinning out, desperately waiting for someone to tell me I was good enough for their stupid (expletive) show (they weren’t all stupid), and now I could drop all the weight of that self-judgement and shame.”
“I started teaching yoga and guiding plant walks, and I was peaceful and content for the first time maybe ever in my life,” Greenwood continued. “And just when I thought to myself that maybe I could go back to acting in a way that was healthier for me, I started getting offers. It sounds made up, I know, but it’s true. Since then I have been living this way, accepting offers and doing specific audition requests, and it has lead to the most rewarding work of my career.”
In addition to “Girlfriendship” in 2022, she also co-starred with Holly Robinson Peete in “Holiday Heritage” that year. In 2023, she starred in one season of a Canadian TV show called “Shelved,” now available to stream on Tubi, and Hallmark’s “Magic in Mistletoe.” In 2024, she appeared in “Crimetime: Freefall” and worked with fellow Hallmark actor Brooks Darnell on the sci-fi short “Embryo,” per IMDb.
Before Greenwood went public with her cancer journey in March 2025, there was hope from fans and online reviewers for “Crimetime: Freefall” to become a franchise. Macfarlane even told TVGoodness that director Stacey N. Harding always planned on it becoming a franchise — which is still possible once Greenwood feels well enough to act again.
“Stacey said to me right at the beginning, ‘I’m shooting this with all the preparation one would do as if they were making a pilot,'” Macfarlane told TVGoodness. “She did a wonderful job and I want it to come back. I really do. We wait and see how it does. I am certainly moving forward with the hope that we get to do it again.”
Comments
Hallmark Star Unable to Film Since Cancer Diagnosis: ‘Savings Won’t Last Forever’