Jimmy Kimmel Gives Health Update on Son Billy, 7, After Heart Surgery

Jimmy Kimmel is keeping fans apprised of his son Billy’s recovery following his third open-heart surgery.

The late-night host experienced a reversal of roles when he sat down with Entertainment Tonight’s Kevin Frazier on the set of the reboot of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to chat about his own project, which also included a thoughtful update a little over a month after the 7-year-old was discharged from the hospital.

“Billy’s doing great,” he prefaced, noting that “he’s just mentally right back where he was” before the surgery, “which is crazy.” However, Kimmel and his wife, Molly McNearney, are “gonna have to be careful with him,” at least for the next few months, as he continues to heal from the procedure, which, according to the Cleveland Clinic, can take a minimum of six to 12 weeks.

The comedian went on to describe kids as “made of rubber” as he spoke of their resilience—something he said “the doctors actually explained” in the aftermath. “…I don’t know why it never occurred to me before because they’re still growing,” he added.

Billy was born with Tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia, a rare congenital heart defect that involves multiple heart abnormalities, according to Boston Children’s Hospital.

He underwent his first heart surgery shortly after birth, and his family hopes that this most recent one will be the last to correct the abnormality.

Kimmel is very involved in his son’s recovery, despite his impressive list of commitments, including the new series and his late-night talk show. “Yeah you know what I do, I just cut out all the family time, I ignore my children,” he joked to the publication, before explaining that shooting the newest show on his resume only took him away for a couple of days. “…the truth of the matter is even though it’s a whole season of shows, we shoot it in a weekend so it’s not that big of a deal, I miss the weekend,” he said.

He was front and center on the battlefield shortly after Billy returned home from the hospital, taking on a “home intruder” as his son watched on from the safety of the living room.

Source: Entertainment Tonight, Cleveland Clinic, Boston Children’s Hospital