Seinfeld star Michael Richards has revealed that he battled prostate cancer in 2018 secretly. The comedian said that the only reason he survived was that he underwent a dramatic surgery.

Richards was diagnosed with stage 1 after a checkup revealed he had elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. “I thought, well, this is my time. I’m ready to go,” he told People. “But then my son came to mind just a few seconds later, and I heard myself saying, ‘I’ve got a 9-year-old, and I’d like to be around for him. Is there any way I can get a little more life going?'”

‘I probably would have been dead in about eight months’

Richards’ doctor said his entire prostate needed to be removed as the biopsy “didn’t look good.” “It had to be contained quickly,” the 74-year-old actor said. “I had to go for the full surgery. If I hadn’t, I probably would have been dead in about eight months.”

Richards felt inspired to write his memoir, Entrances and Exits, after facing the near-death situation. He wrote it in a surplus of diaries he had kept.

“I had over 40 journals I’d kept over the years and wanted to do a full review of my life. I’m turning 75, so maybe wanting to do that is something that comes with being my age. I wanted to connect with feelings and memory,” he said. “I’m surprised at how much I was able to remember.”

In the memoir, Richards also discussed a racist tirade he faced in 2006 when he was heckled by an audience member. “He went low and I went even lower,” he wrote in his book, out June 4. “We both ended up at the bottom of the barrel.”

Richards revealed that after the incident, his Seinfeld castmates Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus reached out to him. He added that he was “embarrassed” and “concerned about the mess spilling onto them.”

Richards also confessed that he has “some regrets” but believes in the “continuity of the soul.” He added that “screwups in life are necessary.”

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