Alex Trebek Dies After Long Cancer Battle
Alex Trebek passes away at 80 after long battle with pancreatic cancer
After a long battle with cancer, the iconic Jeopardy host Alex Trebek has passed away. The show’s host was synonymous with the show, Alex Trebek IS Jeopardy. He’s hosted the quiz show since 1984 and today, November 8, 2020, the show that marked his career announced that after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, he passed away peacefully at home at the age of 80.
“Jeopardy! is saddened to share that Alex Trebek passed away peacefully at home early this morning, surrounded by family and friends. Thank you, Alex,” the show said in a statement on Facebook.
Trebek announced that he had cancer during a broadcast back in March of 2019, saying, “Just like 50,000 other people in the United States each year, this week, I was diagnosed with Stage IV 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. And 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 rates statistics for this disease.”
And Trebek did keep working. Despite his diagnosis, despite his ongoing treatments, he continued to host the show. In January of this year he announced that he would finally retire from the show, though he did not announce when that would happen. However, the coronavirus pandemic forced production to halt in March, and forced the great Mr. Trebek to take a break as well. He did, however, resume hosting duties in October and TMZ says that the final Trebek-hosted episodes will air through Christmas.
Over the summer Trebek updated his fans, saying he was “doing well” and was looking forward to the release of his memoir, The Answer Is …: Reflections on My Life, which is out now.
Fans can take heart knowing that Trebek was ready for this stage in his life, telling The New York Times over the summer that he had no fears about his future.
“Yesterday morning my wife came to me and said, ‘How are you feeling?’ And I said, ‘I feel like I want to die.’ It was that bad. There comes a time where you have to make a decision as to whether you want to continue with such a low quality of life, or whether you want to just ease yourself into the next level. It doesn’t bother me in the least,” he said.
Trebek is survived by his wife Jean Currivan and his two children Matthew and Emily. RIP to an absolute legend.
