Al Roker, the longtime Today show anchor, has been experiencing health issues for some time now.
Back in November, 2022, Roker was admitted to hospital because of blood clots. Following concerns raised by his fans, Roker decided to share with them the reasons behind his absence from the show.
“So many of you have been thoughtfully asking where I’ve been,” he began his post. “Last week I was admitted to the hospital with a blood clot in my leg which sent some clots into my lungs.” He then added that he was in a process of recovery, but some time later, his condition worsened and he was forced to return to the hospital once again. For the first in years, he was forced to miss the Thanksgiving Parade.
Earlier this year, he came back to the show and spoke candidly of his health condition, admitting something his fans weren’t aware of up until that moment.
“I had two complicating things. I had blood clots that they think came up after I had COVID in September and I had this internal bleeding going on,” Roker shared. He then added: “I lost almost half my blood.”
Talking to his Today co-hosts, Roker revealed he suffered internal bleeding and required surgery.
“I went into for one operation, I got four free.”
The team of doctors at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center discovered two bleeding ulcers. As a result, Roker was forced to undergo a seven-hour surgery during which doctors re-sectioned his colon, took out his gallbladder, and redid a part of his small intestine.
“(We) were extraordinarily concerned about Al,” Dr. Felice H. Schnoll-Sussman, Al’s gastroenterologist, told Today. “Extraordinarily concerned. He had a life-threatening experience. I mean, there’s just no doubt about that.”
Roker’s wife, Deborah Roberts, who is an ABC News Senior National Affairs Correspondent, said of her husband’s health scare, “He was a medical mystery for a couple of weeks. It was the most tumultuous, frightening journey we have ever been on.
“He is a living, breathing miracle,” she said. “He really is, and I have to say — I’m not overstating it, I don’t think — Al was a very, very, very sick man. And I think most people did not know that.”
And now that everyone believed the worst was over, Roberts made an announcement that came as a surprise to many.
In a video she shared on her Instagram account, Roberts said that she needed a break.
“Sometimes your body says ‘Enough. It’s time to take a break, recharge, renew’ and I think my body is screaming that right now,” she said.
“So I am going to do just that. I’m going to take a little breather, take a couple of days and try to refresh and recharge.
“Going to sign off social media and just do a little focus on me…I’ll see ya when I see ya.”
She, however, assured her fans that they would see her on ABC again next week.
Well, everyone needs a break sometimes and it is great when we see people prioritizing their health over everything else.
We wish Roker and Roberts health.
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