Ryan Seacrest fought back tears on Monday’s (July 21) episode of On Air with Ryan Seacrest as he opened up about his father’s prostate cancer journey.
The topic came up as Seacrest and his co-hosts celebrated their colleague Dennis Clark’s “victory story” of remission for cancer. The American Idol host previously revealed his dad, Gary, had been “battling cancer for several years” back in a 2021 Instagram post, but, at the time, they thought it was “no longer detectable.”
Unfortunately, “it got worse and it spread,” Seacrest said on Monday’s show, per People. “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.”
The Wheel of Fortune host revealed how Gary contracted pneumonia while undergoing chemotherapy and ended up in the ICU. He explained that he was filming American Idol‘s live shows last season when his sister, Meredith, called with the devastating news.
“[I’ve] never really spoken about this,” Seacrest continued, noting how he somehow finished the episode and immediately flew to Atlanta to visit his father. “I didn’t even remember what I was saying [in the episode].”
“The night that I got there, the conversation they were having with [my dad] 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,” he recalled.
Gary ultimately decided not to have surgery and spent weeks in the ICU recovering. Seacrest said he visited his dad daily and broadcasted his radio shows from his hotel room in Atlanta at the time.
“When you see a parent suffering and when you see them going through this and you don’t understand it yourself, you’re just listening to all the different doctors and trying to make sense of what they’re trying to suggest and do,” he shared. “I didn’t want to miss trying to understand who these people were that were taking care of my father.”
“He could not get up to sit. He could not eat. He could not drink water. He could not go to the bathroom. Weeks go by in ICU and finally he began to get some strength back,” Seacrest added.
He also noted how he wanted his mom, Connie, who is in remission from cancer, to take a break. “When you’re a kid, no one tells you how to handle this with your parents,” he stated.
Gary eventually regained strength and is now back home under full-time care. Seacrest praised the nurses for their help, saying they are “the ones that are really looking after them day and night for hours, and I loved the team of nurses.”
Seacrest shared that his father celebrates his 81st birthday on July 27, revealing that when he asked his dad what he wanted, he simply said, “I just want to get out of this chair. I just want to leave this house.’”
Getting choked up, the long-time TV host shared, “I got 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.”
After saying how happy he was about Clark’s good news, Seacrest concluded, “Cancer affects every one of us in some way, and it. And it sucks. And the treatments suck … treatments are tough. But I know he’s going to get through this.”