Talk Show Host Jimmy Kimmel’s Son Undergoes Third Open-Heart Surgery

Pop­u­lar late-night host Jim­my Kim­mel recent­ly revealed that his 7‑year-old son, Bil­ly, under­went a suc­cess­ful third open-heart surgery at Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal Los Ange­les (CHLA) over Memo­r­i­al Day weekend.

Kim­mel shared a heart­felt mes­sage on social media, express­ing the fam­i­ly’s ini­tial anx­i­eties along­side their opti­mism. They emerged from the expe­ri­ence with “a new valve inside a hap­py, healthy kid.”

Bil­ly was born with a com­plex heart defect known as tetral­o­gy of Fal­lot with pul­monary atre­sia. This con­gen­i­tal con­di­tion neces­si­tat­ed imme­di­ate med­ical inter­ven­tion. Since Bil­ly’s first surgery in 2017, Kim­mel, a vocal advo­cate for health­care reform, has open­ly shared his son’s journey.

Kim­mel praised the excep­tion­al med­ical team at CHLA, specif­i­cal­ly high­light­ing “bril­liant sur­geon Vaughn Starnes, car­di­ol­o­gist Tim Casarez, and the excel­lent, hard-work­ing staff, doc­tors, nurs­es and nurse prac­ti­tion­ers.” He expressed immense grat­i­tude for their exper­tise and kind­ness in car­ing for Billy.

The expe­ri­ence at CHLA exposed Kim­mel to the chal­lenges faced by oth­er fam­i­lies with vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren. He acknowl­edged the “mir­a­cle work­ers” who ded­i­cate them­selves to sav­ing young lives. Kim­mel con­clud­ed by express­ing his appre­ci­a­tion for his wife, Mol­ly, and his admi­ra­tion for Bil­ly, call­ing him “the tough­est (and fun­ni­est) 7 year-old we know.”