NEWSAl Roker Makes Triumphant Return To 'Today' After Hospitalization, Recalls Losing 'Half My Blood'
Jan. 6 2023, Published 2:17 p.m. ET
Two months after Today icon Al Roker was hospitalized after suffering blood clots in his legs and lungs, the storied anchor is back on air — and seemingly more grateful than ever.
On Friday, January 6, Roker made his triumphant return to the long-running NBC morning program, detailing just how happy he was to be back in action with his beloved colleagues.
“My heart is just bursting,” explained Roker, who was accompanied by wife Deborah Roberts amid his inaugural appearance. “I’m so thrilled to see all of you and the crew and everybody. Right now, I’m running on adrenaline. I’m just thrilled to be here.”
AL ROKER WILL RETURN TO 'TODAY' ON JANUARY 6 AFTER HE WAS HOSPITALIZED FOR BLOOD CLOTS
Yet it seems Roker isn’t the only one excited to be back in his element — Roberts too got candid about her husband’s prognosis, dubbing her love a “living breathing miracle.”
“It’s not lost on us that this is a major, major thing for Al to be here,” she told Today anchors, including Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Craig Melvin.
“He is a living, breathing miracle,” she continued. “He really is. I’m not overstating it, I don’t think. Al was a very, very, very sick man and I don’t think most people know that.”
“I had two complicated things,” Roker later elaborated of his condition, noting that he “had blood clots that they think came up after I had COVID in September.”
“I had this internal bleeding going on, I lost half my blood,” he continued, explaining that his medical team “were trying to figure out where it was.”
“They went in, they did surgery, and it ended up two bleeding ulcers. They had to resection the colon, take out my gall bladder,” he added, joking that he “went in for one operation and I got four for free!”
Considering these scary details, Roberts proceeded to describe the last few months — including Roker’s “major, major surgery” as being “the most tumultuous, frightening journey we have ever been on.”
“He was a medical mystery for weeks,” she explained, “We were just on pins and needles every day.”
Yet Roker ultimately pulled through, a testament to both his medical team and the TV personality’s “will” and “drive,” as Roberts put it.
STAYING IN SHAPE! AL ROKER GOES FOR WALK IN NYC FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE NOVEMBER HOSPITALIZATION
