As stated by The Hollywood Reporter, the beloved Today anchor Al Roker finally returned to Studio 1A this Friday after more than a two-month absence related to a serious health scare. The longstanding NBC weather anchor and co-host joined Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie at the beginning of the Today show, walking to the anchor desk with the assistance of a cane. Roker said, “I have missed you guys so very much, you are my second family, and it is just great to be back.”
Later during the show, Roker and his wife, ABC news correspondent Deborah Roberts, discussed the weather anchor’s medical condition during a conversation with Today’s Kotb, Guthrie, Craig Melvin, and Carson Daly.
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Roker’s wife, Roberts, said, “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 you all had a chance to know that.” She went on to reveal that when Roker first became sick, the couple didn’t know what illness Roker was dealing with.
She continued, “It was a team that had to figure out what was happening, he was a medical mystery for a couple of weeks. It was the most tumultuous, frightening journey we have ever been on. Al went through a lot of tests, a lot of scopes, and there was just so much that had to be done — and a surgery if you don’t mind me saying — a major, major surgery, and we were just on pins and needles every day.”
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Roker then described his experience. He said, “I had two complicating things. I had blood clots that they think came up after I had COVID in September. And then you know, I had this internal bleeding going on. I lost half my blood, and they were trying to figure out where it was. Finally they went in, did the surgery, and it ended up that I had two bleeding ulcers. They had to resection the colon and take out my gallbladder. I went in for one operation, and I got four free,” he joked.
Roberts additionally noted that it was Roker’s humor that helped get her through the tough time.
“I was sitting there one day in the hospital and through this very scratchy voice — he was so gaunt and exhausted — he said, ‘I’m going to make a spatchcocked turkey for Christmas.’ And I didn’t know whether to burst into tears,” Roberts said. “That was the moment for me, and it will always be the moment for me, where I knew [he would be OK]. I’m sitting here hoping he’s got to make it to Christmas, and he just wants to make a turkey.”
