'I Am Grateful to Be Back!'

Diagnosed with lifethreatening blood clots and internal bleeding, the beloved Today show weatherman returns to the show after 2 months

-  K.C. BAKER

When Al Roker's alarm went off on the morning of Jan. 6, the Today show weatherman and cohost had never been happier to rise before dawn. For the first time in two months, Roker, 68, traded the hospital gowns and sweats he'd been living in since Nov. 11 for a natty three-piece suit adorned with a blue silk flower. The moment was one that Roker and his wife, ABC News senior national-affairs correspondent Deborah Roberts, had feared would never come. "Al is a living, breathing miracle," says Roberts.

Shortly after 7 a.m., Roker walked onto the set to give a quick on-air hello to his coanchors Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie, who tearfully welcomed him back after his harrowing medical leave. "I have missed you all so much," he said, hugging them both. "It's good to be back."

The homecoming was a celebratory ending to a health crisis that left Roker hospitalized twice, for nearly two weeks at a time-and close to dying.

Will to Live "He never gave up," says Hoda Kotb, who joined Guthrie and other Today staffers on Dec. 14, surprising Roker at home with Christmas carols.

Roker has faced other health issues in the past, including a 2020 prostate cancer diagnosis. But this latest scare-a perplexing mix of post-COVID blood clots and internal bleeding caused by a perforated small intestine-became so dire that Roberts, 62, was terrified her husband of 27 years might not survive it. "I was truly bracing myself to have a talk with the kids about the possibility of losing their father," she says about their daughter Leila, 24, and son Nick, 20, as well as his daughter Courtney, 35, from his first marriage. Now that Roker is back home, back at work and on the road to healing, he says, "I'm blessed to be alive."

Fan Favorite Out on the plaza for the first time since his hospitalization, Roker yells "My people!" as the crowd cheers him on.