2 days ago
ESPN anchor Jay Harris reveals prostate cancer diagnosis
NEW YORK — ESPN 'SportsCenter' anchor Jay Harris revealed Thursday he's been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The sportscaster, 60, shared the news on ABC's 'Good Morning America' and in a post he penned for ESPN Front Row. Harris is scheduled for surgery on June 10.
'I'll be away from 'SportsCenter' for about a month to recover and then I'm coming back, better than ever,' said Harris, who's anchored the show since 2015.
Harris said he's received an 'optimistic' prognosis from his doctors and, per his most recent scan, 'nothing has spread.'
'Once we take out the prostate, hopefully that'll be it. That's the goal,' he noted.
Harris said he went public with the news in part because men often 'don't talk' openly about their health and he hopes to encourage others to have conversations that could potentially be life-saving.
'We all need to talk about these things because we all have them in our families,' said Harris, whose father and cousins also had prostate cancer. 'I hate to be morbid but we sentence ourselves to death for not talking.'
In his piece for ESPN Front Row, Harris wrote he was diagnosed with the cancer last month, and while 'jarring,' it wasn't entirely unexpected given his family history and demographic.
'Prostate cancer disproportionately affects Black men,' he said. 'It's something I've always been cognizant of, and my doctor and I talk about it every annual visit. And I'm sharing it all with my 26-year-old son. Maybe I'm oversharing at times — lol — but he needs to know.'
