Who Are Amanda Peet Parents? The Real Story Behind Her Family and Tragic Loss

In a March 21 essay for The New Yorker, Amanda Peet revealed that she learned she had stage I breast cancer while both of her parents were in hospice on opposite sides of the country.

Her father died first. Her mother later died in hospice after battling Parkinson’s disease.

Now, netizens want to know more about Amanda’s parents and who they were.

In her essay, Amanda opened up about the moment she received the call about her parents. It came during a chaotic period in her own life.

“My sister called: our father was about to die. Our parents, long divorced, were both in hospice, on opposite coasts,” Amanda wrote. “Our mother’s had started in June, but our father’s was only a week in, so we hadn’t expected him to go first.”

Amanda’s mother, Penny, worked as a social worker. Her father, Charles D. Peet Jr., built a career as a lawyer. His obituary states that he died in his Manhattan home in September 2025, and worked at major firms, including Milbank, Tweed, and Freshfields during his career.

In the essay, she wrote, “My mom’s name was Penny,” and explained that close friends and family called her Pen. She described her mother as creative, strong-willed, and resistant to anything too polished or conventional. Penny avoided canned food and store-bought birthday cards. She even rejected overly polished hotels.

Amanda said the cancer diagnosis hit as everything else around her began to fall apart. Now, she is doing better. After a August 2025 scan led to a biopsy, doctors found a small tumor. She flew to New York to be with her father but did not arrive before his death.

After returning to Los Angeles, doctors confirmed that her cancer was hormone-receptor-positive and HER2-negative. A second mass later proved to be benign. As a result, she needed a lumpectomy and radiation instead of chemotherapy or a double mastectomy.

She also shared that she chose not to tell her mother about the diagnosis or about her father’s death because her mother was already in the final stage of Parkinson’s disease. In one of the essay’s most touching moments, Amanda recalled climbing onto her mother’s rented hospital bed, locking eyes with her, and softly saying “Howdy doodle,” a phrase her mother used often.

“I said 'howdy doodle' — that’s how she often greeted me,” Amanda revealed. “But then I realized that she was communing without words, and I followed suit. Time was running out, and, besides, I had already told her everything.”

Two weeks after Amanda got her first clear scan, a hospice nurse told her that her mother likely had only days left. She urged Amanda to contact the mortuary before the death to avoid handling painful arrangements in the immediate aftermath. Amanda later softened the heavy moment with humor, joking, “My mom was going to think she’d landed in Hell.”