Al Roker has returned to the Today show after a life-threatening healthbattle.
The weather anchor, who has been off the air for more than two months as herecovered from to back-to-back hospitalizations as he coped with blood clotsand internal bleeding that necessitated major surgery, was greeted by hiscolleagues Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie as soon as he arrived at NBC’sStudio 1A at 30 Rockefeller Plaza on Friday.
“Yes!” shouted Kotb in the clip as Roker, 68, stepped off the elevator in afull suit and hat accompanied by his wife, ABC News’s Deborah Roberts. “Youare home,” Guthrie told him.
At the top of the show, Guthrie said, “It is a really special Friday morning.I’m sorry but the tears are already flowing. Al Roker is back! … To say wehave missed you doesn’t begin even describe it. It’s nothing without youhere.”
Hotb said the crew was “weepy” and the crowd outside has “been bummed everyday we’ve walked out there” without him. “They’re like, ‘Where is Al?'”Outside, fans held up a sign spelling out, “Welcome back Al” and held posterswith his smiling face on them.
Roker called everyone behind the show his “second family” and said “it’s greatto be back — and wearing pants” after a month-long hospitalization followed byrecovery at home. He said his heart was “just bursting” as his colleaguespulled out all the stops, including welcoming him with his hype music, the ATeam theme song.
Roker’s sense of humor, a constant since he joined the show in 1996, wasturned on even if he admitted he was running on adrenaline. Later in the show,when Carson Daly made a joke about Kotb using Roker’s dressing room asadditional closet space while he was gone, Roker shot back, “Actually, they’dalready cleared them out. [But] I am wearing her Spanx right now. These arefantastic!”
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Roker’s health journey was discussed in detail in later segments. He firstsuffered from stomach pains but it escalated and, among issues, he had bloodclots in his lungs, which doctors suspect stemmed from him having COVID inSeptember. However, that was coupled with the complication of mysteriousinternal bleeding which necessitated surgery and revealed two bleeding ulcers.He also had colon resection surgery, when part or all of the colon is removed,and had his gallbladder removed.
Roker said, “I lost half my blood” amid the illness and recovered in asurgical ICU.
Roker’s gastroenterologist, Felice H. Schnoll-Sussman, described herself as”extraordinarily concerned. He had a life-threatening experience. There is nodoubt about that.” Roker credited her, his internal medicine specialist JayRaman and the rest of his medical team for “saving his life.”
As far as his health going forward, Schnoll-Sussman said at this point heneeds needs TLC — through time, good food, rest and being with loved ones.
Roker’s family, including his wife and three children, were by his side as herecovered. Roberts, from rival ABC News, joined them on the show to talk abouthelping Roker get back on his feet.
When Kotb pointed out that people probably didn’t realize how dire Roker’ssituation was and that he had to be “saved,” Roberts said, “It’s not lost onus that this is a major, major thing for Al to be here. He is a living,breathing miracle. He really is. I’m not overstating it, I don’t think. Al wasa very, very, very sick man and I think most people did not know that.”
Roberts revealed that Roker’s condition was “a medical mystery for a couple ofweeks,” going through tests, scopes before the “major, major surgery.”
“It was the most tumultuous, frightening journey we have ever been on,” sheadmitted.
Roberts said her first sign that things would be OK was when a “gaunt andexhausted” Roker, who barely had any voice, whispered to her her from hishospital bed, “I’m going to make a spatchcock turkey for Christmas,” sherecalled with a laugh.
“That was the moment for me… I’m sitting here hoping he’s going to make it toChristmas and he wants to make a turkey,” she laughed. “I just knew at thatpoint — that will, that drive.”
Roker praised his wife and family for helping him get through it. “I had noidea how bad off I was,” he admitted, saying Roberts shielded him from that.
Al Roker’s wife Deborah Roberts joined him for to talk about his healthbattle. “Al was a very, very, very sick man and I think most people didn’tknow that,” she admitted. (Photo: Today)
“I’m grateful to have this woman by my side, all of you and you folks athome,” he said. “The prayer, you could feel it.”
Roker added his doctors told him if that he wasn’t in the shape that he wasin, as he documents his daily walks on the show’s Start Today, “this mighthave been a different outcome.”
Smoker hasn’t been on air since November. He missed his first Macy’sThanksgiving Day parade in two decades as well as the lighting of theChristmas tree at Rockefeller Center. A sweet moment was the Today showanchors and staff going to his home to serenade him with Christmas music.
Roker was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020. He had his prostate removedas well as surgeries to fix issues with his hip and knees. He also had gastricbypass surgery in 2002.