(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Kathy Bates has revealed that she was "advised" to keep her cancer battle a secret.

The Oscar-winning actress kept the disease completely out of the public eye partly because of work reasons she told Anderson Cooper in a new interview.

Kathy was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2003 but she did not reveal her diagnosis until nearly six years later where she revealed that she was in "total remission."

"I was advised to [do so]," the 63-year-old actress told Anderson on why she kept her illness quiet.

"I was contracted to go into a movie at that time, Little Black Book with Brittany Murphy, who I miss very much.

"My doctors at the time, they had to get insurance approval and all of that so I was very quiet about it and had to go back to work right away."

But Kathy says that all of her reasons were not totally work related and she had a personal issue with it too.

"Nobody else really knows what you're going through except another cancer patient," the Midnight in Paris star said.

"Even though your family's supportive and surrounds you, I just got to the point where I would go to chemo by myself and just really go through it on my own.

"I admire people who have been open, like Melissa Etheridge and women I see walking around facing it without wigs and all of that stuff. I think I'd be more courageous next time." (C) Cover Media