It’s always nice when celebrities live up to their reputations . You have to wonder about some of them, don’t you? What you see on your screen isn’t always reflected off-screen!
Some of them you just know, though, don’t you? Like Alex Trebek. The guy is a workhorse, a fixture you can count on seeing night-in, night-out, quizzing all the smartypants out there knowing all of us are playing along at home as well.
And he’s a total sweetheart.
If there was any doubt about that, Alex put those doubts to rest in a recent interview regarding his relationship with his wife, Jean.
Now, we all have regrets in our lives, but for Alex, his biggest wish is a bit different: he only wishes he and Jean had met earlier in life.
Speaking with People , the Jeopardy! host said that he’s “pretty satisfied” with his life, but if he could change anything, it’s when he met his wife.
“My wife Jean and I have been together almost 29 years,” he explained.
“And I was thinking about President Bush when he died, and all the comments about his life about what a nice guy he is, and how he and his wife had been together 73 years. I thought, oh my gosh …if I’d just met Jean in my 20s we could have had a longer life together.”
Mind you, the age difference of 24 years between Alex and Jean would have made that a bit awkward.
“I guess if I’d met her when I was in my 20s she wouldn’t have been born yet,” Alex added. “But hey, 29 years is pretty good!”
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As if that’s not inspiring enough, Alex’s moving announcement of his cancer diagnosis was something to behold.
On YouTube, Alex told the world that he had received a devastating diagnosis: Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
In a very Jeopardy -appropriate matter-of-fact manner, Alex said that “Just like 50,000 other people in the United States each year, this week I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Now normally the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this and I’m going to keep working.”
Although survival rates for that cancer are not good, Alex maintained an upbeat, positive attitude.
“With the love and support of my family and friends, and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease,” he said.
Needless to say, we’re all rooting for him!
He wouldn’t be the Alex Trebek we all know and love without adding a little quip about beating cancer, either.
“Truth told, I have to because under the terms of my contract, I have to host Jeopardy! for three more years!”
Mind you, the 78-year-old host has ruminated on retirement recently.
Although he is indeed under contract until 2022, he naturally has thought about who will succeed him as America’s quiz master.
“It’s probably going to be a woman, somebody younger, somebody bright, somebody personable, somebody with a great sense of humor,” he told Aol .
He has even thrown out a few names in the past, including CNN legal analyst Laura Coates, Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz, and LA Kings play-by-play announcer Alex Faust.
In the meantime, Alex can count on the love of millions of fans, and especially his beloved wife Jean.
Jean says that it wasn’t love at first sight for them, but she did feel a certain chemistry all the same. “There was just this deep sensitivity about him with a gruffy exterior,” she said. “I kept thinking, he’s 24 years older than me …but there was something that just kept drawing me to him.”
Watch Alex’s courageous announcement below.
h/t People
