Sad Last Days: Tom Brokaw, 83, Talks Dealing With Incurable Blood Cancer, Admits Doctors Didn't Think He Would Survive This Long

Retired journalist Tom Brokaw is sharing a rare update on his decade-long battle with blood cancer.

In the upcoming episode of CBS News Sunday Morning, the Today alum sat down to chat about how the illness took a toll on his career, and he confessed his doctors didn't believe he would even make it to 83 years old, a milestone he hit this past February.

"I’ve had a bad experience. I kept thinking bad things wouldn’t happen to me. But as I grew older, I began to develop this condition," he tells pal and show host Jane Pauley of being diagnosed with multiple myeloma 10 years ago.

The Emmy winner noted "what you try to do is control it as much as you can."

"I’ve had to change my life in some way. I really had to give up my daily activity with NBC," explained the father-of-three. "You know, I had to walk away from them, as they were walking away from me. I just wasn’t the same person. … And so for the first time in my life, I was kind of out there, you know, in a place I had never been in my life."

Elsewhere in the sit-down, he gives the scoop on his latest endeavor, Never Give Up: A Prairie Family’s Story, a book dedicated to his parents. Brokaw will also be joined by wife Meredith, who recalled how they set Pauly up with her future husband, Garry Trudeau.

Brokaw was a staple on news programs for decades, as after several years on Today, he acted as an anchor for NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004.

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He then became a special correspondent and guest anchor until he retired in 2021 after more than 50 years of hard work.

Brokaw's interview airs on Sunday, June 25, at 9 a.m. ET on CBS. It will also be made available to stream on Paramount+.