Al Roker Shares Some Tough News On Air In An Effort To Help Viewers
"When [the doctor] started, he closed his door and said, 'I always like to have these discussions face to face,'" Al Roker recalled of the day his life changed forever. "And I was like, 'Uh-oh. Well, that doesn't sound good.'" His hunch was right: just moments later, the doctor delivered a brutal diagnosis. now the iconic newscaster has a message he wants to share with the world — before we face a fate like his own.
Doctor's Orders
Al was no stranger to medical drama. Between 2016 and 2020, he'd endured surgeries on his shoulder, hip, and knee, but this was a little different. After a routine physical, Dr. Vincent Laudone noticed elevated numbers of a prostate-specific antigen in his blood. He suggested Al get an MRI — so the newscaster did.
Feeling Fine
"This one was kind of just a weird feeling that nobody can outwardly see anything different about me," Al said, taking stock of his body. "I looked in the mirror, there was nothing outwardly different. But I knew there was something intrinsically, inherently, internally different." The MRI results proved that.
The 'C' Word
"You hear the word 'cancer,'" Al said, "and your mind goes, it's the next level, you know?" In the brief seconds following the diagnosis, he could only think I'm going to die. He suddenly felt very lonely in the cold, sterile doctor's office, wishing his wife was at his side. A regret sprang to mind that he just couldn't shake.
With Deborah in the Know
"I feel badly, because I didn't tell Deborah to come with me," Al said, speaking of his wife, ABC News reporter Deborah Roberts. "In hindsight, boy I wish I'd told her to come. She was upset. And once she got past that, the reporter in her kinda took over. And then she's been at everything ever since!" But the pair had some heart-wrenching choices to make.
