(NEXSTAR) – “Today” co-host Al Roker said Thursday in a social media update that he’s “relieved” to be done with prostate cancer surgery and back home.
“Relieved to let you all know that my #prostatecancer surgery is done and [I’m] back home,” the 66-year-old tweeted. “[A] big shoutout to everyone at the #josierobertsonsurgerycenter and appreciate all the thoughts and wishes from our viewers and the wonderful care packages from my co-workers. See you all soon.”
Roker broke the news of his diagnosis on the “Today” show last week.
“It’s a good news-bad news kind of thing,” Al 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.”
Roker said during the show that he publicly revealed his diagnosis to bring awareness to the number of men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer, saying, “It’s a little more common than I think people realize.”
Roker said 1 in 9 men overall — and 1 in 7 African American men — will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.
“The problem for African Americans [includes] 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,” he said.
Roker said he was diagnosed during a routine checkup on Sept. 29.
“I don’t want people thinking, ‘Oh, poor Al,’ you know, because I’m gonna be OK,” he said.
Though Roker, a father of three, did say he feels “badly” about upsetting his wife, ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts, by not asking her to come with him to his checkup.
“In hindsight, boy I wish I’d told her to come,” he said.
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