NEWSAlex Trebek Was a 'Very Normal Guy,' Daughter Emily Admits of 'Jeopardy!' Host on Third Anniversary of Her Dad's Death
It's been three whole years since the world lost Jeopardy!'s beloved host Alex Trebek.
In honor of the sorrowful anniversary, television personality's wife, Jean, and daughter Emily shared a sweet video in collaboration with the organization Stand Up To Cancer, as they payed tribute to the Canadian-American game show host after he lost his battle with stage four pancreatic cancer on November 8, 2020.
Alex Trebek's daughter Emily insisted her famous dad was a 'very normal guy.'
"If he wasn't at work, he would be home in a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, a baseball hat. He was a very normal, very normal guy," Emily, 30, recalled of her father, who was 80 years old when he passed away.
Jean, 60, interjected of her late husband: "He loved fixing things around the house. He was very passionate just about being engaged in the everyday workings of life."
Alex Trebek tied the knot with his wife, Jean, in 1990.
The video proceeded to show various photos of Alex doing handy work, with one snap picturing the dad-of-three standing on a ladder that was leaned up against the side of his home, as he appeared to wipe the gutters with a rag.
In another photo, Alex's head peeked through the opening of a floor while he held onto a hammer and worked on its unfinished wooden framing.
Alex Trebek was 80 when he lost his battle against pancreatic cancer and died in November 2020.
As the clip continued, Jean opened up about the heartbreaking day she and Alex learned of his difficult diagnosis.
"When Alex was diagnosed, we were together in the office of the oncologist, and we had never thought in a million years it was stage four pancreatic cancer," the entrepreneur — who tied the knot with Alex in 1990 — explained.
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Alex Trebek hosted 'Jeopardy!' from 1984 until his passing in 2020.
"People were shocked, and right away they were sending so many notes, so many emails, so many sweet gifts," she noted of family, friends and fans' reactions.
Despite having to deal with the detrimental disease, Alex somehow stayed in uplifting spirits.
"I remember asking him in the car, driving … to and from the chemo appointments. And I said to him, 'Would you do anything differently?’ And he said, 'Jean … I'm 80 years old. I've lived the most amazing life.' And I thought, 'Wow, that's really beautiful, and I strive to live like that,'" she shared.
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Jeopardy! producer Sarah Whitcomb Foss also made a cameo in the Stand Up To Cancer video, as she recalled how Alex never let cancer get in the way of him doing the job he'd been hosting since 1984.
"Producers would offer, 'We can delay taping. We could cancel taping,'" Foss stated, noting: "Alex wouldn't dream of it. Alex would go back in the dressing room in a state that no one would think someone could come out and host ‘Jeopardy!’ Sure enough, Alex would come out as if nothing had happened. You wouldn't even know the pain and suffering that he was going through."
