Close call! Shock jock Howard Stern has revealed that he recently had a cancer scare that really made him think about all that he’s done in his life — including his regrets.

On the morning of May 10, 2017, the radio personality, 64, took a day off from his very popular show, The Stern Show. And while rumors kicked off as to why the hardworking Private Parts author didn’t show up to work, he simply chalked it all up to having the flu. But there was something more serious going on — he was at the hospital getting surgery.

Howard Stern
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Howard revealed that after doctors told him about his low white blood cell count, they discovered a growth on his kidney that had a 90 percent chance of being cancerous. “And now all I’m thinking is, ‘I’m going to die,'” he recalled in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “And I’m scared s–tless.”

But there was some good news for Howard, as the growth turned out to be a benign cyst. However, this close brush with death made him open his eyes to some of the wrongs in his life, including not having a stronger relationship with his three daughters — Emily, 37, Deborah, 32, and Ashley, 32 — or his kids’ mother, Alison Berns (the pair were married from 1978 to 2001). The producer also can’t read his early books without feeling sick.

“I was so completely f–ked up back then,” he told the outlet. “I didn’t know what was up and what was down, and there was no room for anybody else on the planet.” But today, his outlook has changed. “I’m at a place now where I am trying to figure out how to spend the rest of my life, however long that might be,” he said.

Howard Stern
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The recent cancer scare has also put retirement on his brain, although it is just a thought at the moment. “To walk away from what I’m good at … I don’t even know that I have it 100 percent right yet. And maybe there’s more to explore …” he said.

We certainly hope that Howard continues to remain healthy! We wish him the best!

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