When Jimmy Kimmel and his wife Molly McNearney’s youngest son was born with a congenital heart condition known as tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia, little Billy needed open heart surgery just a few days after he was born. A few months later, he required a second follow-up surgery.
Through these difficult parenting moments, both Jimmy and Molly were sadly hesitant to get super close with Billy due to the uncertainty of his health issues.
“There were secrets we kept from each other that we revealed only after the second surgery. The biggest one was that, I think subconsciously, we didn’t want to get too close to the baby because we didn’t know what was going to happen,” Jimmy revealed in an interview with O, The Oprah Magazine.
“I don’t know if that’s right or wrong or common or uncommon. But when I told her I was feeling that way, [Molly] said, ‘Oh I’m so happy you said that because I was feeling that way too, and I didn’t want to express it,'” he continued.
Luckily, the 11-month-old is now on the road to recovery.
“He’s great,” Jimmy told Oprah Winfrey about his little boy.
“He’ll have another surgery when he’s around six or seven years old, but in the meantime, he’s doing great.”
We’re sure both Jimmy and Molly are more than relieved they can put this difficult time behind them.
Back in February, Jimmy’s good friend Ellen DeGeneres gifted him with the sweetest gift in honor of his son — a hospital room at Children’s Hospital LA named after Billy. Since the baby has already undergone multiple open-heart surgeries, he’s spent quite a lot of time there.
“We called our friends at Children’s Hospital LA,” Ellen told Jimmy during the Tuesday, Feb. 27 episode of The Ellen Show.
“We have named one of the rooms of the Heart Institute floor in honor of Billy. That will forever be the Billy Kimmel room.”
So sweet!
Via Closer Weekly
