Al Roker reveals what helped save his life after 2022 health scare

Al Roker has revealed what helped save his life during his 2022 health scare that forced him to take time away from his role at NBC.

At the time, the Today show weatherman was hospitalized with blood clots in his legs and lungs, forcing him to miss the annual Thanksgiving Day parade for the first time in 27 years.

After returning home, he ended up in the hospital one month later, with internal bleeding caused by ulcers. During that hospital stay, Roker was pulled into emergency surgery where his colon was resected and his gallbladder was removed.

He returned to the Today show in 2023, explaining more about what happened. “I lost half my blood. [My doctors] were trying to figure out where it was,” he told the show’s viewers about his time in the hospital. “I really do feel good. I’m sure I’m going to collapse like a stone after this is over because this is the first work I’ve done. It’s been a journey.”

In an interview with Peoplepublished Tuesday, Roker said his doctor credited his fitness with his survival of the ordeal, saying: “My doctor said if I had not been in the shape I had been, I would most likely not be here today.”

In 2002, Roker elected to undergo gastric bypass surgery after the number on the scale hit 300. “There’s no magic bullet,” he said Tuesday, adding that the surgery and weight-loss drugs like Ozempic are only “a means” and not “the end.”

“You’re still going to have to put in the work,” he continued, while highlighting his own exercise regimen of running on the treadmill and then doing 10 minutes of weight training. “Sometimes you have to push yourself to do the things you need to do.”

Although he does weigh himself every day to keep himself “grounded,” Roker also said he accepts that there will be the occasional slip-up.

“No one’s perfect — you’re going to screw up. Lord knows I have. But you just gotta say, ‘That was then. And now we’re here. What are we gonna do now?’” he said. “You have to have that chat with yourself.”

Roker has previously discussed his health scare, telling PageSix in a 2023 interview he wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for his wife, Deborah Roberts.

At the time, he said that he was “just so overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and prayers and of course, my wife Deborah.”

He added: “I wouldn’t be alive without her.”

“I guess I know it now,” he confessed. “I didn’t know it at the time. Deborah was great at keeping all that away from me so I thought I was doing OK but that was great because I was able to focus on getting better.”