Al Roker Says Having an ‘Advocate’ — Like Wife Deborah — During Prostate Cancer Journey ‘Makes a Huge Difference’ (Exclusive)

Five years ago, Al Roker had insisted his wife, award-winning journalist Deborah Roberts, didn’t need to accompany him to his doctor appointment.

“Deborah said that morning, ‘Do you want me to come?’ I said, ‘No, it’s just a follow-up. It’s not a big deal,'” Roker recalls of the day he received his prostate cancer diagnosis in September 2020. During a previous, routine check-up, his prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels had come back elevated in his bloodwork, and after they continued to rise, a biopsy had been performed.

He was due for the results.

“I get there and I’m waiting in the office. [My doctor] comes in and he closes the door behind him and said, ‘I always like to have these meetings face-to-face.’ And — wait, what? I wasn’t expecting that. And then he proceeds to say that ‘It looks like you’ve got prostate cancer,'” Roker says. “And as he was talking, I wasn’t really listening to him, I was thinking, ‘Deborah’s just going to kill me because she wanted to be here and she wasn’t here.’ ”

Roker remembers briefly wondering if he could hide the news from her. But her reaction to her diagnosis made him realize he had the right person in his corner.

“I waited until she got home and she said, ‘How did it go with the doctor?’ I said, ‘Well, about that.’ And A, she was upset for me, but B, she was upset that I didn’t have somebody there with me to ask the questions. Because she’s very good [at that]. I mean, look, that’s what she does. She’s a journalist. She asks all the questions and the follow-ups,” Roker explains. “So she immediately got on the phone with the doctor and re-interviewed him to get all the answers that I didn’t have. And then we started to plot out the path, going to meet with each expert in their field for treatment, and we came up with a plan.”

Roberts’ steadfastness and calm in the face of assuming the caregiver role reassured her husband. “I knew I had the right partner to be with me to help me get through this,” Roker says. “I think having an advocate, having somebody to advocate for you… having somebody who can ask the questions and the follow-ups and really make sure you’re being taken care of makes a huge difference.”

The treatment plan that the pair decided upon included opting for surgery to remove Roker’s prostate, which happened in November 2020. Roker took about two weeks off from work, and also credits the support from his Today show family as also essential to his recovery.

“The interesting thing is when you’ve been with a group for as long as we’ve all been together, there are a lot of good things that you experience together. Marriages, births of our kids, watching our kids growing up, things like that. But when there are less than happy times, in some ways it’s even more important because you’ve got folks that you know have your back, that are there for you, that are not (literally) fair-weather friends,” Roker (who forecasts the weather for the NBC morning show) says of his colleagues. “They’re there when things are not great and to help lift you.”

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In 2022, Roker was hospitalized — unrelated to his prostate — for blood clots in his leg and lungs. Along with the entire Today staff, Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin, Hoda Kotb, Jenna Bush Hager, Dylan Dreyer and Sheinelle Jones surprised Roker one morning when they gathered outside of his home where he was recovering to spread some much needed cheer.

“When I had those health issues, to have everybody show up outside my door singing Christmas carols was beyond heart-balm. It was just everything. You feel close to your co-workers, but then when something like that happens, you didn’t realize how close you were,” he says. “Through everything I’d been through, I really hadn’t cried or gotten really emotional about it, but that really touched me, and I think that was the first time I actually cried.”

Roker also had to navigate the cancer diagnosis with his three children: Courtney, 38, Leila, 26, and Nick, 23. The meteorologist says he had to learn to let his children show up for him, even though he feels like that’s typically his job as the father in the family.

“They were concerned, but I think by the time [Deborah and I] told them, we really researched everything and had come up with a plan of attack. I felt pretty positive about it. It was more about reassuring them that I’ve got this issue, we’re going to take care of it. Everything’s going to be fine,” he says. “Because look, I think the hardest part for any parent, I think, and probably men more than women — I’m generalizing obviously — but we’re the dad. We’re supposed to be there for our kids, not the other way around. They were there [for me]. And it’s funny, you get to a point where you just kind of give it up and say, ‘Okay, they’re here to make sure I’m okay, and that’s fine.’ ”

In addition to Roberts, his children and his colleagues, Roker says that knowing so many others were there for him, including his brother, his sisters and “dear family friends,” helped carry him through his treatment.

“You cannot discount the power of positive thoughts and prayers. And I know that I had so many people praying for me and wishing me well that listen, is there any concrete evidence that says, ‘Oh, that had an effect?’ No, but I know that it did,” Roker says emphatically. “And let’s face it, it’s like chicken soup. It’s not going to hurt.”