Jimmy Kimmel's Wife Had the Most Poignant Reaction to His Gut-Wrenching Monologue

From Redbook

On Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel spent the entirety of his late show opening monologue delivering a gut-wrenching recap of the nightmare that he and his wife went through last week with their son, Billy. To give the story in short: Billy was born looking seemingly healthy, but when one nurse noticed that he had a heart murmur and was a bit purple, they conducted tests that revealed he had a heart disease.

Following a terrifying open-heart surgery, Billy is now recovering well, but Jimmy, still clearly shaken by every parent’s worst nightmare, broke down several times as he not only thanked the nurses and doctors who helped save his son’s life, but also gave an impassioned plea to keep the Affordable Care Act.

“Before 2014, if you were born with congenital heart disease like my son was, there was a good chance you’d never be able to get health insurance because you had a pre-existing condition,” he explained. “And if your parents didn’t have medical insurance, you might not live long enough to even get denied because of a pre-existing condition.”

He then made this universal point:

Many people took to Twitter to applaud Kimmel’s brave speech, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

And Stephen Colbert took time out of his own show to urge his viewers to watch Kimmel’s speech, despite the fact that they are late-night rivals. Even Matt Damon sent flowers.

But the most poignant reaction of all came from his wife, Molly McNearney, whom Kimmel also thanked in his monologue for “letting me having sex with her in the first place,” and for being so “strong and level-headed and loving during the worst nightmare a new mother can experience.”

“I couldn’t ask for a better partner,” he said.

It seems the feeling is mutual. On Tuesday, Molly shared a beautiful photo of her husband and son, along with a caption that exuded the same blend of humor and tragedy as Kimmel’s speech:

“I am thankful to love and be loved by these two brave guys. Both criers,” she wrote.

Judging by their latest family photo, looks like they are all doing well!

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