John Tesh, 73, reveals how he survived rare form of prostate cancer after being given just 18 months to live

Former Entertainment Tonight co-host John Tesh has revealed that he has far exceeded the wildest expectations of doctors who diagnosed him with a rare form of prostate cancer more than a decade ago — even though he continues to live with the disease.

The 73-year-old anchor-turned-superstar musician told Page Six in a new interview that doctors initially thought he likely wouldn't live more than two years when he was previously diagnosed in 2015.

'I was given 18 months to live,' Tesh said. 'So, I’ve been fighting cancer successfully, still fighting it. It’s still under treatment, on and off.'

Despite a decade of successfully fighting his 'rare form of prostate cancer,' Tesh explained that the cancer 'is metastatic now.'

Tesh — who recently spoke about his past relationship with Oprah Winfrey — clarified that he therefore can't say he's in remission. Instead, his cancer is now 'stable,' though he acknowledged that it's 'a frightening thought' to consider living with cancer still in his body.

In order to manage his condition now, he explained how his doctors at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston have used a start–stop method to attack the cancer. 

'They will let it grow for a little bit, and then get me back on treatment, back and forth,' Tesh shared. 'It’s called pulsing, and it’s scary until you get used to it because it’s like, "Why am I living with cancer?"'

Tesh understandably credited his crack team of doctors with extending his life years beyond what was initially thought possible. 

But he also highlighted just how important his second wife, Connie Sellecca, has been in helping him to survive and live with cancer.  

'Without my wife Connie, who has been my advocate over the years, I wouldn’t be talking,' Tesh said. 'I’d be dead. I would have been dead in 2015.'

Tesh and Sellecca have been married since 1992 — a year after he finalized his divorce from Julie Wright — and they share a daughter named Prima. 

He noted how his wife had been essential in fostering his religious faith, which came to influence his music as well.

'We discovered in 2015 several scriptures in the Bible which were related directly to healing,' Tesh revealed. 'One of them was Mark 11:23, which was incredibly powerful and I have it tattooed on my arm.'

Despite his ongoing health struggles, Tesh has managed to stay remarkably active with his musical performances. 

Tesh, who wrote the iconic NBA on NBC basketball theme Roundball Rock, got a chance to perform the tune with his band last month at the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles.

While Sellecca's presence in Tesh's life was revelatory, he spoke in another recent interview with Page Six about a different relationship — his brief romance with Oprah Winfrey in the 1970s.

Tesh spoke about how it was 'very uncomfortable back then for an African-American woman and a very, very white guy' to be dating.

He acknowledged that their relationship 'was unusual in the South.'

'My whole family grew up in the South, and so I was obviously aware of that,' he explained. 

Despite the social climate at the time, Tesh said they refused to let the outside noise define their relationship.

'It became a joke between us,' he explained, 'because we would work all day and then, like we really saw each other once a week, and she or I would say, "Hey, which restaurant do you want to empty tonight?"'

The pair briefly dated while building their careers in local news before eventually going their separate ways.

Looking back, Tesh said it was clear from the start that Winfrey was destined for extraordinary success.

'We all knew that she was something special,' he shared, adding that he particularly enjoyed it when they were assigned to cover the same stories. 'It was like, "OK, this makes this a lot of fun."'

Winfrey would, of course, go on to become one of the most influential media figures in the world, while Tesh later rose to national prominence as a television personality and musician. 

Winfrey has been with her longtime partner Stedman Graham since 1986.

In 2020, Winfrey wrote about their decades-long 'spiritual partnership' in her 'What I Know For Sure' column for O, The Oprah Magazine.

As she looked back on their relationship, the star admitted that when she first met him, she thought he was a 'player' and 'too handsome' to be interested in her.

Winfrey also explained that Stedman was 'always with the same girlfriend' whenever she saw him around, so she 'didn't pay much attention' to him.

But that all changed when they were both visiting a mutual friend who was ill in 1986.

'We left together, and I asked if he wanted to get a beer,' she recalled. '(Yes, I drank a lot of beer then and wore cowboy boots every day.) He said he didn't drink. (Still doesn't—not one sip of nothin' alcoholic since I've known him.)

'I thought he was nice enough, but I wasn't that impressed,' she continued. 'He was polite, yes, and kind. The sort of guy who sits with an ailing friend. Tall and handsome, for sure. But actually too handsome, I thought, to be interested in me.

'I figured he must be a player. So did all my producers. They warned me not to get involved with that Stedman guy.'

Winfrey said she was cautious about even pursuing a friendship with Stedman, but she had a change of heart after she learned he had broken up with his girlfriend and was asking about her dating status.

The two have been together ever since, and their relationship even survived a broken engagement - one that neither of them regrets.

'For years, there were hundreds of tabloid stories, weekly, on whether we would marry. In 1993, the moment after I said yes to his proposal, I had doubts,' she wrote.

'I realized I didn't actually want a marriage. I wanted to be asked. I wanted to know he felt I was worthy of being his missus, but I didn't want the sacrifices, the compromises, the day-in-day-out commitment required to make a marriage work. My life with the show was my priority, and we both knew it.

'He and I agree that had we tied the marital knot, we would not still be together,' she continued. 'Our relationship works because he created an identity beyond being "Oprah's man" (he teaches Identity Leadership around the world and has written multiple books on the subject).

'And because we share all the values that matter (integrity being number one). And because we relish seeing the other fulfill and manifest their destiny and purpose.'