Strong boy! Neil Patrick Harris gave an update on Jimmy Kimmel’s son as he filled in for the late-night host on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, December 6.
As previously reported, Kimmel’s 7-month-old boy Billy underwent his second heart surgery earlier this week. In his absence, he asked fellow stars to sit behind his desk.
“I’m thrilled his son Billy’s heart operation was a success. He’s recovering very well. Jimmy told me today, the respirator is out,” the How I Met Your Mother alum, 44, told the audience during his monologue.
Harris noted that Billy is also eating and smiling. “We’re sending lots of love to all the Kimmels,” he added. “Billy is a brave little boy and it’s heart-wrenching – literally.”
Billy first had to have an operation shortly after his birth in April when doctors noticed that he had a heart murmur and appeared purple in color. Kimmel got choked up revealing the news on his show and said that Billy would have to undergo a few more surgeries.
Kimmel’s wife, Molly McNearney, opened up about the scary situation in a piece for The Hollywood Reporter, which was published on Wednesday. (The couple are also parents of 2-year-old daughter Jane.)
“Jimmy didn’t seem concerned and they left the room. Twenty minutes went by, then 30 minutes, 40 minutes. I started to get worried,” McNearney wrote. “Then a doctor I’d never seen before came in the room — and I knew. He sat down on the bed and put his hand on my knee and I just burst into tears. ‘Where is he?’ I said. ‘Where is the baby?’ The doctor told me there’s an issue, it’s either in his heart or his lung. From that moment on, it became a whirlwind of medical jargon and information I knew I would have to understand.”
When Kimmel returned to work he would later take a stand on affordable healthcare. “I sobbed through the entire thing. I couldn’t believe the strength that it took to tell that story a week after it happened. He didn’t have to do that,” McNearney recalled. “Our family has excellent health care; he had nothing to gain from that. He did it for the other people whom we met in the hospital. He came home that night and I just hugged him and I wouldn’t let go.”
