Cross was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and she is of English and Irish descent. She is one of three daughters of Janet, a teacher, and Mark J Cross, a personnel manager.[3] Cross was raised Catholic.[4] She graduated from Marlborough High School in 1980 and received a half-scholarship to Juilliard.[5] She completed college in 1984 earning a B.F.A. in Acting.[6] Cross returned to school in 1997 receiving a master's degree in psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles in 2003.[3]
In 2004, Cross starred in the role of Bree Van de Kamp in Desperate Housewives. The show was one of the breakout hits of the 2004–2005 television season, and Cross was nominated for several awards for her role, including an Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and five Screen Actors Guild Awards (winning two with cast). She also received a Satellite Award for her performance in the show's second season. The series ran for eight seasons until 2012. In 2014, after two years on hiatus, Cross co-starred as the lead character's mother in the unsuccessful comedy pilot Fatrick.[9] In 2015, Cross guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and later she joined the cast of the thriller series Quantico, playing the recurring role of President Claire Haas, a former Democratic vice presidential nominee.[2]
Personal life
As a child, Cross showed an early interest in performing. She took piano and dance lessons at the Ceil Sharon School of Dance, and was her high school's mascot at school games.[10] Her first acting role was in grade school, in a play called The Witch of Blackbird Pond.[10]
Relationships
Cross was the long-time companion of actor Richard Jordan, who was 25 years her senior; Jordan died from a brain tumor in 1993. In 2006, she married stockbroker Tom Mahoney.[11] Cross underwent in vitro fertilization soon after their wedding,[12] and gave birth to fraternal twin daughters in February 2007, shortly before her 45th birthday.[13][14]
Activism
In September 2018, Cross revealed she had been in remission for eight months after receiving treatment for anal cancer.[15] She explained months later that she had decided to "put a dent in the stigma"[16] because she had discovered through online research that anal cancer patients were embarrassed about their diagnosis.[17] "I found myself in a position where nobody wants this job. Nobody wants to come forward. And I knew that people were suffering and people were ashamed," she said at the 2019 The Atlantic's People v. Cancer event.[18] She advocates for open discussions and further public information about the HPV infection,[17] which can cause cancers of the anus, cervix, ovary, penis, and throat:[19] "In spite of the optics, I care deeply about saving lives. To that end, the important thing to do is educate the public about HPV."[20]
