Alex Trebek Talks Candidly During ABC Special

Michael Strahan and Alex Trebek (ABC Photo)

Alex Trebek is getting candid about another side effect in his ongoing battle with cancer: depression.

The L-A Times reports the “Jeopardy!” host and his wife, Jean, sat down for an interview with “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan that will air Thursday evening (8pm EST). Trebek opened up about his cancer diagnosis and how it has affected his mental health.

“My oncologist told me one of the symptoms, if you will, of pancreatic cancer is that you get these moments of depression, sadness,” Trebek, 79, said in a preview post released Monday.

The longtime quiz-show host first announced his Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in a YouTube video in March, vowing to "beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease.”

He has since talked openly about his treatment journey and the trials and limitations of the illness, even expressing some regret over having gone public with his diagnosis.


Trebek knew something was wrong when his stomach pains grew severe, so he sought his doctor.

“I knew as soon as the doctor came back and mentioned the pancreas. I said, ‘Uh-oh, it’s going to be cancer,” Trebek said in the upcoming ABC interview.

Jean, his wife of 29 years, was the first to know about his cancer. She told ABC that it’s been hard to see her husband “in pain and I can’t help him.”

The “Jeopardy!” host acknowledged that he might not live much longer.

“I have learned something in the past year, and it’s this: We don’t know when we’re going to die,” he said. “Because of the cancer diagnosis, it’s no longer an open-ended life, it’s a closed-ended life because of the terrible... survival rates of pancreatic cancer.

ABC’s special “What Is Jeopardy? Alex Trebek and America’s Most Popular Quiz Show” will air Thursday at 8 p.m. Pacific.