An emotional and candid Ryan Seacrest broke down during a recent broadcast of On Air With Ryan Seacrest while discussing his dad’s prostate cancer battle.
The American Idol and Wheel of Fortune host previously revealed on Instagram in 2021 that his father, Gary, who will be 81 on July 27, has been “battling cancer for several years.” While Gary’s prognosis was once more positive, unfortunately, the cancer “got worse and it spread,” Seacrest shared during On Air’s July 21 broadcast. On top of that, Gary contracted pneumonia while undergoing chemotherapy, which Seacrest discovered when his sister called him while he was taping American Idol’s live shows last season.
“She said, ‘Dad is in the ICU,’ and, ‘How fast can you get here?'” Seacrest recalled, adding that he finished taping the episode even though “I didn’t even remember what I was saying.”
When he arrived at the hospital in Atlanta, “the conversation they were having with [my father] about an emergency surgery was a life or death conversation, and I’ve never seen my strong, very smart father with the look on his face that he had – and the concern, and looking at me to help guide what decisions should be made in this moment,” Seacrest described.
Gary chose not to have surgery and spent weeks recovering in the ICU. “He could not get up to sit. He could not eat. He could not drink water. He could not go to the bathroom,” Seacrest continued. “Weeks go by in ICU and finally he began to get some strength back.”
Seacrest noted that the chemo took a toll on his dad. “When this happens to somebody or someone really close to you that you love, this is a hard thing to see, because the treatments that are commonly recommended can be barbaric to the system. They can cause so much damage to your body in other ways,” Seacrest said.
Seacrest was also concerned for his mother, who, herself, is in remission from cancer. “I needed her to take a break,” he said. “When you’re a kid, no one tells you how to handle this with your parents.”
Gary is now out of the hospital and back in his Atlanta home, but the journey ahead is one full of challenges and small triumphs. When Seacrest asked his father what he would like for his upcoming birthday, Gary replied, “I just want to get out of this chair. I just want to leave this house,'” Seacrest recalled.
Getting audibly emotional, Seacrest went on to share that he recently received “the most powerful, good, happy picture from my dad and my mother, who was with him. They went to a beach to sit outside. They just went to look at the water. They can’t do much, but I saw him smile. I saw my mom smile. … They’ve got each other, and the pneumonia is gone, but his cancer is not.”
After getting chocked up, Seacrest added, “Cancer affects every one of us in some way… and it sucks. And the treatments suck … But I know he’s going to get through this.”
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