Jimmy Kimmel shared a positive update on his son Billy’s health two months after the 7-year-old underwent his third open-heart surgery.
“Billy’s doing great,” the comedian, 56, told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published Monday, July 8. “He had open-heart surgery; you know he’s got the scars and everything, but he’s just mentally right back where he was, which is crazy.”
Kimmel added that he and his wife, Molly McNearney, are “gonna have to be careful” with Billy “for a couple of months,” but otherwise the little boy is “doing really well.”
The late-night host went on to marvel at the resilience of children even when faced with scary health issues.
“They’re made of rubber,” he said. “Everybody says that kids are so resilient, and the doctors actually explained it to me, which I don’t know why it never occurred to me before because they’re still growing.”
Kimmel announced in May that Billy underwent his third open-heart surgery over Memorial Day weekend. “We went into this experience with a lot of optimism and nearly as much fear and came out with a new valve inside a happy, healthy kid,” the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host wrote via Instagram at the time.
He went on to thank the staff at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for their “immeasurable kindness and expertise” during the ordeal.
“Walking around this hospital, meeting parents at their most vulnerable, children in pain and the miracle workers who do everything in their considerable power to save them is a humbling experience,” Kimmel continued. “Thanks to those loving strangers who took time to pray for and send positive energy to our baby, thanks to our family and friends for rallying around us to an almost-ridiculous extent, thank you to my wife for being stronger than is reasonable for any Mom to be and Billy, you are the toughest (and funniest) 7 year-old we know.”
Shortly after Billy’s 2017 birth, Kimmel revealed that his youngest child was born with a rare congenital heart defect and underwent his first open-heart surgery when he was just three days old. Billy’s official diagnosis was “tetralogy of fallot with pulmonary atresia,” meaning that his pulmonary valve was blocked and there was a hole in his heart.
In May, Kimmel said he hopes that Billy’s third surgery will be his last and encouraged followers to support children’s hospitals. “There are so many parents and children who aren’t fortunate enough to go home after five days,” he wrote via Instagram. “Please share your love, hearts and prayers with them and if it moves you, support @ChildrensLA … or a great children’s hospital near you (@CMNHospitals). Nothing matters more than taking care of each other.”
Kimmel and McNearney also share daughter Jane, 9, and Kimmel shares daughter Katie, 32, and son Kevin, 30, with ex-wife Gina Maddy.
