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You HAVE to do a breast self exam every month.

By Terri Schwartz
You HAVE to do a breast self exam every month.

It's been a hard year for Giuliana Rancic, but she's come out of it cancer-free and with a new baby. The 38-year-old E! News host visited the Today show and opened up about the many changes in her life.

"In one year, so much has happened," she said. “This was the best year of my life because of the baby and it was the worst year of my life because of the breast cancer. But it just goes to show that if you’re strong and you’re positive, great things can come out of the darkest time in your life."

Rancic and her husband Bill welcomed son Edward Duke Rancic into their lives (via surrogate) on August 29, and they've been obsessed with him ever since. Because they had such a struggle to have a child, the couple is enjoying every moment with their newborn.

"Bill and I fight over who’s going to feed him, just because we struggled so long to have a baby that now that he’s here, we’re not going to complain," she told Today. "You’re never going to hear us complaining. I just love spending every second I can with him."

The Rancics favourite thing to do? Just stare into their little man's eyes.

“He’ll just stare at you for like 10 minutes at a time,” Rancic says. "It’s just unbelievable."

Duke was carried to term by a gestational carrier, which means he is genetically related to the Rancics even though another woman gave birth to him. Both parents were there during the birth, which Rancic calls "pretty emotional." Now that he's a few weeks old, Rancic says she sees a bit of her husband in him.

"I think he looks more like Bill, which is a good thing," she admits. "I don’t want a boy version of myself."

Rancic almost didn't get to have her first child because she discovered she had breast cancer during her third in vitro fertilization attempt. She underwent a double lumpectomy last October and then had to undergo a double mastectomy just two months later. Now she's cancer-free and happy to spread breast cancer awareness. As part of Do It for the Girls Day, she's devoting much of her own time to let women know the importance of self-checkups.

“We’re encouraging women to give themselves a breast self exam and really think about early detection,” Rancic says. “Early detection is everything. It’s what saved my life. If you detect breast cancer early, you have a 98 percent five-year survival rate.”

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