Stephen Colbert credits his wife with saving life after his appendix burst

‘Don’t broadcast with blood poisoning!’ late-night host tells viewers

Stephen Colbert has revealed that he credits his wife Evelyn McGee-Colbert with saving his life after his appendix burst.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert host, 59, opened up about the ordeal, which happened in November, while speaking to ET’s Nischelle Turner on the red carpet ahead of the 75th annual Emmy Awards on 15 January.

Colbert, who cancelled multiple shows in November after the health scare, credited Evelyn McGee-Colbert, his wife of more than 30 years, while telling Turner: “Where’s my wife? She’s somewhere around here. She saved my life.”

The late-night host then elaborated on his ruptured appendix, and how McGee-Colbert stepped in to help. “First, appendix. And I was in a lot of pain. It was the last show before we took a break. And I went: ‘I’ll just go do the show anyway. I’m sure we’ll be fine.’ By the time the show’s over I had a 102.5 fever. I was in shock. I had blood poisoning,” he recalled.

Colbert then joked about the situation, offering a warning to viewers: “Don’t do it, kids. Don’t broadcast with blood poisoning!”

According to Colbert, his wife knew he needed help just by his voice, as he told Turner that he’d called her from the car. “She heard me, because by the time I was calling her on the drive home, my teeth were chattering and my whole body was in spasms,” he remembered, adding that McGee-Colbert had instructed his driver to bring him directly to the hospital, rather than bringing him home like he’d wanted.

(Getty Images)

McGee-Colbert, who joined Colbert on the red carpet in a floral black halter dress, then explained that she’d known she wouldn’t be able to properly care for her husband at home.

“I kept saying: ‘What am I gonna do at home with you?’ No, we need a hospital,” she explained. “We need medical care because I can’t take care of that kind of pain.”

Colbert, who shares three children with McGee-Colbert, first opened up about his ruptured appendix in December, when he returned to the Late Show for the first time.

At the time, Colbert recalled how, on the day before his absence, he’d been in excruciating pain while filming. “It only hurt when I moved and when I didn’t,” he said, adding that he had been suffering from a “raging fever”.

According to Colbert, by the time he’d reached the hospital, his appendix had already burst.

Colbert and McGee-Colbert married in 1993 after meeting in the lobby of a theatre. They share daughter Madeline and sons Peter and John.

You can find The Independent’s live coverage of the best-dressed stars on the Emmys red carpet here, and our live coverage of all the latest from the awards show here.