TikTok star Mackenzie Paul has sadly passed away at age 26 after a three-year battle with cancer.
Mackenzie was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia back in 2023, and has been sharing the harsh realities of living with the disease on TikTok ever since.
Now, her husband, Brandon Paul, has confirmed her tragic passing in an emotional video shared to Facebook this week.
‘Kenzie is in heaven now,’ Brandon began as he held back tears. ‘Selfishly, I wish she was here, still with me, and it’s going to take the whole rest of my life to get over this.
‘But the one thing I am really, really happy about is that she’s not in pain anymore.’
‘The past two and a half years, I’ve been blessed to be married to the best woman out there.’
Brandon said that seeing her go through some ‘very, very tough times’ wasn’t easy and branded it as a ‘miracle’ that she made it as far as she did.
‘She was the strongest, hard working, most disciplined woman I’ve ever met. She made me a better man, a better husband, every single day,’ he added.
TikTok star Mackenzie Paul has sadly passed away at age 26 after a three-year battle with cancer
Mackenzie was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia back in 2023, and has been sharing the harsh realities of living with the disease on TikTok ever since
‘I’m not sure why she had to go through this. I’m not sure why this had to happen. But I’m glad I got to spend the past couple years with the love of my life.
‘She’s my everything. She always will be. She’ll always be my best friend. She’s a rock star. I love her so much.’
Mackenzie previously revealed that she found out she had the disease during her second year of medical school at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.
The social media star told People after the diagnosis that she had started developing dizzy spells so she went to her doctor for testing.
‘Other than [that and] being more tired I really didn’t have any symptoms,’ she said. ‘My whole life I’ve been really healthy.
‘I was a college athlete. But I remember looking at my labs and I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is horrible.”
‘The doctors were pretty amazed that I didn’t get sick at all because all my white blood cells were really low.
‘I was really lucky that I listened to my body and got the blood work done and figured it out before it did develop into something much worse.’
Now, her husband, Brandon Paul, has confirmed her tragic passing in an emotional video shared to Facebook this week
‘She was the strongest, hard working, most disciplined woman I’ve ever met. She made me a better man, a better husband, every single day,’ he said
Before her death she published her own poetry book, called This Is What It Feels Like: A Book of Poems Written by a Cancer Patient
Acute myeloid leukemia is described as a ‘rare’ and ‘aggressive’ cancer that ‘affects your bone marrow and blood,’ per Cleveland Clinic.
Mackenzie said she decided to start posting about her journey online after she began to ‘lose hope’ as a way to keep her spirits up. And it did just that.
‘Over time, people started following along, offering encouragement and sending messages of support,’ she reflected of her social media fame during a 2025 chat with People.
‘That connection gave me a renewed sense of hope and purpose. Being able to relate to and help others who are walking a similar path has truly saved my life.’
Before her death she published her own poetry book, called This Is What It Feels Like: A Book of Poems Written by a Cancer Patient.
‘[I want] to help other fighters feel less alone – and to shed light on the reality of living in a body that has betrayed you,’ she said of her decision to publish the book.
