He's one of the most recognizable news reporters in America as his career has spanned decades, and on Friday (November 6), Al Roker took to his show to reveal his health issues during a personal segment. The 66-year-old weather forecaster and television personality shared with the world that he has been quietly battling prostate cancer but wanted to speak openly about his journey to hopefully help others.
"It's a good news-bad news kind of thing," Al Roker said. "Good news is we caught it early. Not great news is that it's a little aggressive, so I'm going to be taking some time off to take care of this." His doctor also made an appearance and it was shared that Roker will undergo surgery next week. "We'll just wait and see, and hopefully in about two weeks, I'll be back (on TODAY)."
Roker didn't need to go public with news about his cancer diagnosis, but he wanted to use his health scare as a teachable moment. "The problem for African American men is that any number of reasons from genetics to access to health care, and so we want to make it available and let people know they got to get checked," said Roker. Watch a portion of his segment below.
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