“I’ve never really spoken about this,” he said.

Ryan Seacrest always wears a smile at work, but he traded that for some real vulnerability in a recent broadcast of On Air with Ryan Seacrest in which he opened up about a family member’s difficult health diagnosis. Ryan’s dad, Gary, is undergoing long-term treatment for prostate cancer, and the journey has grown scary at times—something that the American Idol host, admittedly, has kept to himself until now.

In 2021, Ryan shared on Instagram that Gary’s cancer was “no longer detectable” after “several years” of treatment. However, that prognosis changed. “I’ve never really spoken about this,” Ryan explained, adding that Gary’s cancer ultimately “got worse and it spread.”

During treatment, Gary, unfortunately, developed pneumonia, which is an infection in one or both lungs that may cause them to fill with fluid and make breathing difficult. While Ryan was filming last season of American Idol, he received a call from his sister, who said: “Dad is in the ICU, and how fast can you get here?”

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After wrapping the live show, Ryan hopped on a plane to Atlanta. “The night that I got there, the conversation they were having with [my father] about an emergency surgery was a life or death conversation,” he recalled. “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 continued: “He could not get up to sit. He could not eat. He could not drink water. He could not go to the bathroom. Weeks [went] by in ICU and finally he began to get some strength back.”

Gary will be 81 on July 27, and Ryan said that his only birthday wish was to get outside. That’s when the tears welled. “I got the most powerful, good, happy picture from my dad and my mother,” he said through a breaking voice. “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.”

Treatment is still ongoing, but Gary has healed from pneumonia, Ryan explained. “Cancer affects every one of us in some way … and it sucks. And the treatments suck … treatments are tough,” he said. “But I know he’s going to get through this.”