When Al Roker disappeared from Today in late 2022, the public saw only a brief explanation about blood clots. Behind closed doors, his body was failing in real time. A pulmonary embolism led doctors to a nightmare cascade: severe ulcers, catastrophic internal bleeding, and emergency surgeries that stretched through the night. He lost nearly half his blood. For two days, survival was a question no one could confidently answer. His wife, Deborah Roberts, chose not to tell him how close he was to dying, protecting his will to fight when it mattered most.

His eventual return to television in early 2023 felt less like a TV moment and more like a national exhale. Colleagues cried openly. Viewers who had never met him wept with relief. In the years since, Roker has turned his near-death experience into a mission—pushing men, especially men of color, to get screened, to listen to their bodies, to take nothing for granted. He walks more, prays more, and speaks more bluntly about mortality. The man who once simply delivered the forecast now embodies the message he lived: storms come without warning, but preparation, faith, and community can pull you through. Today, every sunrise he describes is one he almost never saw.