Al Roker resumed his rightful place on the “TODAY” show on Friday (Jan. 6) after facing health scares that kept him off the air for two months. In November, the television veteran revealed he was noticeably absent from the show because he was hospitalized with blood clots in his leg and lungs.
After being released on Thanksgiving, he returned to the hospital the following day due to complications. He remained under close watch by medical staff until he was discharged a second time on Dec. 8. His life-threatening ailments caused the meteorologist to miss out on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting, a first for him in his 27-year run with “TODAY.”
The beloved weatherman returned to his early morning routine on Friday. He was warmly greeted by fellow co-anchors Hoda Kotb, Savannah Guthrie, Carson Daly and Craig Melvin. In tow with Roker was Deborah Roberts, his wife of two decades. “My heart is just bursting. I’m so thrilled to see all of you, the crew and everybody. Right now, I’m running on adrenaline. I’m just thrilled to be here,” said Roker when asked how he felt about his return. Roberts chimed in noting it was “not lost on us that this is a major, major thing for Al to be here. He is a living, breathing miracle. He really is, and I have to say — I’m not overstating it, I don’t think — Al was a very, very, very sick man. And I think most people did not know that.”
Roker, she claimed, was a medical mystery for weeks as doctors tried to figure out what was wrong with him. The Daytime Emmy winner added, “I had two complicating things. I had blood clots that they think came up after I had COVID in September, and then I had this internal bleeding going on. I lost half my blood, and they were trying to figure out where it was.” Roker said surgery helped doctors to discover two bleeding ulcers. He joked that because they had to remove his gallbladder and resection his colon, he “went in for one operation, and I got four free.”
Watch Al Roker speak about the harrowing health ordeal below.