Longtime SportsCenter anchor Jay Harris announced he has prostate cancer.
“I’m having surgery on Tuesday,” Harris, 60, said during the Thursday, June 5, episode of Good Morning America. “I’ll be away from SportsCenter for about a month to recover. And then I’m coming back better than ever.”
Harris, who has worked at ESPN since 2003, said his doctor is “quite optimistic” about his diagnosis.
“Per my last scan, nothing has spread,” Harris revealed. “So once we take out the prostate, hopefully that will be it. That’s the goal.”
In sharing the news, Harris said he hopes his story inspires other men to be proactive in discussing their own health matters.
“We don’t talk,” he said. “I was on a golf trip with some buddies of mine. We were just sitting around talking about things that I probably can’t talk about on television right now. I mentioned the news to them. I told them what was going on with me. The conversation from there was fantastic.”
Harris continued, “We talked about doctor’s appointments and ailments and family histories and things that we wouldn’t have had a conversation about. I figured I needed to share, because we all need to talk about these things. We all have them in our families.”
By choosing to “not talk about these things,” Harris said “we sentence ourselves to death.”
Harris explained that prostate cancer is a generational affliction for his family.
“My dad had it,” he said. “My cousin told me that some folks on my dad’s side of the family that I didn’t know have it. It’s there. We have to know. I probably overshare with my 26-year-old son [Bryce], but he has to know.”
Harris and his wife, Stephanie Prigmore, are parents to Bryce and daughter Tyra, 19. His family accompanied him to Good Morning America for the interview, which Harris called “a true blessing.”
In discussing his specific prostate cancer diagnosis, Harris said men often don’t want to talk about things “below the belt.”
“We are human beings,” he urged. “We need to take a cue from the ladies. They go see OBGYNs early. We need to do something like that, too.”
Harris added, “Every time I talk to someone, they go, ‘Oh yeah, my uncle had it’ or ‘My cousin has it’ or ‘My father-in-law has it. Do you want me to give him your number? He can talk to you.’ Everybody has been so welcoming. I love that part.”
