Yesterday’s episode of Oprah was an emotional one for me on so many different levels.  Did you see it?  She welcomed former talk show host, Montel Williams, to the set but they also showed short, pre-taped segments of Fran Drescher (The Nanny), Scott Hamilton (figure skater) and Magic Johnson (NBA basketball player).  The topic was “After the Diagnosis” and I was so touched by the strength and honesty with which these stars shared their own story. 

Fran talked about her brave battle with uterine cancer.  She had to fight for years to get a diagnosis but was then heartbroken when she was told she needed a hysterectomy.  She had never had children.

Scott Hamilton was on tour when he started to feel unwell.  He went to the hospital and learned that he had testicular cancer.  Within months, he was also diagnosed with brain cancer.  He said that his wife immediately started praying when he told her the news and he realized that he drew strength from her and from God.

Magic Johnson talked about the shock of learning he had HIV 18 years ago (can you believe it’s been that long!?).  He said that driving home from the doctor’s office to tell his wife was the hardest thing he ever had to do (along with being forced to retire from basketball) but he believes that, because his wife and son were spared from contracting the virus, he will live longer with their love and support. 

Montel Williams discussed his battle with Multiple Sclerosis and it brought tears to my eyes.  He talked about his daily, never-ending pain and how he uses his medication, exercise and psychological tools to cope.  He also recounted a story when he was sitting in his closet with a gun in his mouth contemplating suicide but decided against it because his children were in the house.  He later tried to throw himself under a taxi but, not only did the cab driver break in enough time, he recognized Montel and helped him get up and walk across the street.  He said that it was a life-changing moment since he felt he didn’t have the right to take his own life. 

I suffer with chronic pain and several other health problems and I can relate to having to fight through it every single day.  I’m so glad that they had this episode.  I believe it can help a lot of Oprah’s viewers and it looks like Montel needed to share his story so I hope this was helpful to him as well.

Dr. Oz had some suggestions to “Prepare to Get a Bad Diagnosis”

• Take support to your doctor’s appointment.
• Don’t forget to breathe in order to handle the stress of the situation and remind yourself that you will keep going.
• Find a health advocate who will fight for you tirelessly.
• Get a second opinion but do not tell the second doctor what the first one said.  Let them come to their own conclusions.
• Become an expert on your illness, do your research.

image: Bauer-Griffin

Veteran talk show host, Montel Williams will end his show’s 17-year run with this season. 

“I can’t say thank you enough to those who’ve welcomed me into their homes for the past seventeen years,” Williams says in a statement. “It has been both an honor and a joy.”

Next season, CBS is planning to do a full-year of programming highlighting “the most exciting episodes from the last 17 years.” 

Wow… I’m pretty surprised, actually.  I know that his show will be missed by many but I hope that this just creates more opportunities for him. 

Good luck, Montel, and thank you for putting your show on the air for nearly two decades.  It will be missed. 

image by CBS via People.com

Talk show host, Montel Williams, made some great looking smoothies and talked about his book on Fox LA!  He says that because of his health problems, he tries to put pounds of vegetables into his body every day.  Sounds like a good idea!

Watch the video of him making his green shake (it looks good)!

Montel Williams acted like a crazy person the other day when he got into a fight with some reporters.  At least he has apologized.

Apparently, Montel was in Savannah to promote a free prescription program for low-income people when things went sour.  Some of the reporter’s questions angered Montel and he terminated the interview.

The Celebrity Cafe reports that "later, when the Savannah Morning-News reporters returned for an unrelated assignment, Williams walked up a high school student intern at the paper, Courtney Scott, and got in her face pointing his finger saying, “Don’t look at me like that. Do you know who I am? I’m a big star, and I can look you up, find where you live and blow you up,” said Joseph Cosey, an employee of the paper."

Scott (the high school intern) said, “I’m not sure if he meant ‘blow me up’ and ruin my career or really blow us up, but it was threatening.”

Williams responded later saying “I mistakenly thought the reporter and photographer in question were at the hotel to confront me about some earlier comments. I was wrong, and I apologize for my overreaction.”

Nice… Well, that high schooler just got a dose of the "real world."   Too bad Montel lost his cool like that.

Montel Williams wants to show that he is about more than psychics and survival stories - he’s going to produce movies. One project that’s in the works is a gay-themed flick:

Talk show host Montel Williams will try his hand at movies by executive producing a series of feature films in partnership with production companies.

Romantic comedies include That’s Amore, about a gay Italian man who inadvertently finds himself engaged to a Jewish girl next door.

This reminds me the Canadian film, “Mambo Italiano” which was rather amusing so I hope this doesn’t copy it!

Tags: montel williiams, gay movie, that’s amore

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Talk show host, Montel Williams, got married this weekend.

Montel and his fiancée, Tara Fowler, “wed before an intimate gathering of friends and family Saturday afternoon on a beach in Bermuda, according to People magazine.

Williams, 51, proposed to Fowler, 36, a former American Airlines flight attendant, on July 12, 2006, in front of both of their families at Manhattan’s Tavern on the Green restaurant.

This is the third marriage for Williams, who has four children – two from each of his previous marriages. It is the first for Fowler.”

Congratulations and best wishes!

Tags: montel williams, tara fowler, wedding, montel williams married

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Montel Williams suffers from multiple sclerosis and, since being diagnosed in 1999, he has made it his personal obligation to raise awareness about the illness and the treatment options. Here is a great interview:

Paternity tests and psychics made the “The Montel Williams Show” a hit but after Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, he began taking on a more serious cause – the nation’s healthcare system. Williams tells the Resident about his sometimes controversial causes and why he thinks U.S. healthcare is “an abomination.”—Heather Corcoran

Has there been one moment on the show that sticks out as the most memorable?

MW: At the end of this year, I will have completed my 3,400th show. I’ve had over – this is really insane – almost 30,000 guests seated in my primary chair. We’ve talked about, easily, 2,000 different issues. I’m proud to say I know that over the course of the last 17 years we’ve done shows that have changed the nation. Talk shows were the first shows to talk about the fact that AIDS even existed, really. We made that more aware by bringing that into your household; Phil Donahue opened the door and started that.

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Wow… I didn’t even know he was getting married! Montel Williams is set to tie the knot later this year. Here are some details:

American talk show host Montel Williams will spare no expense when he gets married in Bermuda later this year.

The 51-year-old will wed Tara Fowler at a glitzy ceremony at Tucker’s Point Club on Saturday, October 6.

The celebrations are expected to kick off the day before with a pre-wedding sunset cruise around the island. The couple, who started dating in 2005, will whisk guests off for a four-hour party on the 101ft yacht ‘Venetian’.

The following evening, guests will be shuttled to the Tucker’s Point Club for a 6.30pm ceremony.

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I thought this piece, written by Montel Williams, was really interesting. Here it is:

You probably know me as a talk show host and, perhaps, as someone who for several years has spoken out about my use of medical marijuana for the pain caused by multiple sclerosis. That surprised a few people, but recent research has proved that I was right: right about marijuana’s medical benefits and right about how urgent it is for states to change their laws so that sick people aren’t treated as criminals. The Illinois General Assembly is considering such a change right now.

If you see me on television [10 a.m. weekdays on Channel 4 in St. Louis], I look healthy. What you don’t see is the mind-numbing pain searing through my legs like hot pokers.

My doctors wrote me prescriptions for some of the strongest painkillers available. I took Percocet, Vicodin and Oxycontin on a regular basis, knowingly risking overdose just trying to make the pain bearable. But these powerful, expensive drugs brought me no relief. I couldn’t sleep, I was agitated, my legs kicked involuntarily in bed and the pain was so bad I found myself crying in the middle of the night.

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Here are some pictures of talk show host, Montel Williams, playing poker on June 27, 2007.

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