Beloved meteorologist Al Roker returned to daytime news on Friday (Jan. 6) after being absent two months due to “mystery medical” issues. The 68-year-old weather anchor returned to NBC’s Today set with his colleagues and wife, Deborah Roberts, by his side.
“My heart is just bursting. I’m just so thrilled to see all of you and the crew and everybody,” he happily expressed. “Right now, I’m running on adrenaline. I’m just thrilled to be here.”
Roberts then shared her point of view as she watched her husband go through “a medical mystery for a couple of weeks,” calling it “the most tumultuous, frightening journey we have ever been on.”
Emphasizing the seriousness of her husband’s recent condition, she said, “It’s not lost on us that this is a major, major thing for Al to be here. He is a living, breathing, miracle. Al was a very, very, very sick man. And I think most people did not know that.”
It was then revealed that the Queens, NY native underwent “a major, major surgery,” leaving his family “on pins and needles every day.”
“I had blood clots that they think came up after I had COVID in September,” Roker said while admitting that he had “no idea how bad off I was.”
He explained, “And then I had this internal bleeding going on, I lost half my blood and they were trying to figure out where it was and finally they went in, did this surgery. I had two bleeding ulcers, had to resection the colon, take out my gallbladder…I went in for one operation, I got four, free.”
Being a supportive wife and the strength needed during her husband’s time of recovery, Roberts uplifted and complimented Roker for fighting through.
“He was so gaunt and exhausted,” she expressed. “He said, ‘I’m going to make a spatchcock turkey for Christmas.’ And I didn’t know whether to burst into tears or just to beam. That was the moment for me, and it will always be the moment for me … I’m sitting here hoping he’s going to make it to Christmas and here he is talking about making a turkey for Christmas.”
Roker received medical treatment at New York Presbyterian, in which he thanked the staff as well as his family, friends, and fans for their support. “Each of my doctors said if I wasn’t in the shape that I was in, this might have been a different outcome,” he ended.
Watch Al Roker and his wife speak about his medical scares on Today below.