{"id":49654,"date":"2026-03-12T10:19:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T14:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=49654"},"modified":"2026-03-12T10:19:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T14:19:37","slug":"john-tesh-still-fighting-cancer-10-years-after-grim-prognosis-credits-faith-and-wife-for-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/john-tesh-still-fighting-cancer-10-years-after-grim-prognosis-credits-faith-and-wife-for-strength.html","title":{"rendered":"John Tesh ‘Still Fighting’ Cancer 10 Years After Grim Prognosis, Credits Faith and Wife For Strength"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DFree \/ Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than a decade after doctors told him he had just 18 months to live, television personality and musician John Tesh says he is still battling cancer \u2014 and still standing strong.<\/p>\n

The former Entertainment Tonight<\/em> host, now 73, revealed in a recent interview that his fight against prostate cancer continues nearly ten-and-a-half years after his initial diagnosis in 2015.<\/p>\n

“I was given 18 months to live,” Tesh told<\/a> Page Six. “So, I’ve been fighting cancer successfully, still fighting it. It’s still under treatment, on and off.”<\/p>\n

While the cancer has spread and is now considered metastatic, Tesh explained that doctors have been able to manage the disease. Though he is not in remission, he says his condition remains stable through a treatment method known as “pulsing.”<\/p>\n

“They will let it grow for a little bit, and then get me back on treatment, back and forth,” he said. “It’s called pulsing, and it’s scary until you get used to it because it’s like, ‘Why am I living with cancer?'”<\/p>\n

Looking back on the moment he first received the devastating diagnosis, Tesh said doctors were blunt about his outlook.<\/p>\n

“The doctors said, ‘You should probably get your affairs in order because we can’t operate on this,'” he recalled during a previous appearance<\/a> on Good Morning America<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The news initially hit him like a bolt from the blue.<\/p>\n

“I just was like, ‘OK, this is over,'” Tesh said. “And so, there were some tears. It’s like getting a brick in the face.”<\/p>\n

But in that difficult moment, his wife, actress Connie Sellecca, stepped in with a different perspective \u2014 one rooted deeply in faith.<\/p>\n

“My wife, who is a faith-filled Italian girl from the Bronx, just rose up,” Tesh said. “And she said that ‘this is not us.'”<\/p>\n

Tesh credits Sellecca’s strength and belief for helping him find the courage to keep going. Their journey, however, was not without struggles. The singer admitted that the emotional weight of the diagnosis initially sent him into a dark place.<\/p>\n

“It breaks couples apart, prostate cancer, and it almost did us,” Tesh shared. “I was not behaving. I was drinking too much, and when you’re a terminal patient, you can get any meds you want, and so I was \u2014 Connie calls it \u2014 I was in the middle of a pity party.”<\/p>\n

But Sellecca refused to let him stay there.<\/p>\n

“She just said, ‘Come on, snap out of it,’ and she wasn’t having any of it,” he said.<\/p>\n

Over time, the couple fought their way through the battle together, leaning on faith, resilience, and a renewed perspective on life.<\/p>\n

“The expectation that I was gonna live as long as my Aunt Omegene, which is 100 years old, it was a battle, and it was a couple’s battle, and we’ve won it,” Tesh said.<\/p>\n

Today, even while continuing treatment, the veteran broadcaster says he remains deeply grateful for every year he’s been given \u2014 a powerful reminder that hope, faith, and perseverance can defy even the most difficult odds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than a decade after doctors told him he had just 18 months to live, television personality and musician John Tesh says he is still battling cancer \u2014 and still standing strong. The former Entertainment Tonight host, now 73, revealed in a recent interview that his fight against prostate cancer continues nearly ten-and-a-half years after…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":49657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nJohn Tesh 'Still Fighting' Cancer 10 Years After Grim Prognosis, Credits Faith and Wife For Strength<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"John Tesh says he's still battling cancer 10 years after doctors gave him 18 months to live, crediting faith and wife Connie Sellecca.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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