Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

READ: Marc Summers Talks About OCD and Brushes With Death

READ: Marc Summers Talks About OCD and Brushes With Death

If you a kid in the late '80s or early-to-mid '90s, and were lucky enough to have cable (or a friend who did), then Marc Summers was probably a huge part of your childhood.


The former Nickelodeon star and Double Dare host, now 66, recently sat down for an interview with People magazine to reflect on his career, and opened up about his struggles with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as well as his two brushes with death.

Being known for getting doused in "slime" on a daily basis wasn't easy for Summers, who claims that he would hurry to change his clothes as soon at filming ended. What he didn't know until he was diagnosed live on his Lifetime talk show in 1995 was that he had a crippling case of OCD.

The very public revelation took its toll, halting his career in its tracks, as Summers explains: "Most people weren’t aware what OCD was back in the late ‘90s." He even lost a job hosting Hollywood Squares due to the lack of understanding. "People were not given the tools to learn what it was," he laments.

But in some ways, his OCD gave him an incredible drive and focus. By 2001, he was given a chance to host Unwrapped on the Food Network, which has gone on to be the network's longest-running program thus far.

He credits himself as a bit of a "pioneer" for OCD, pointing to Howie Mandel's ability to open admit his own struggles with OCD and germaphobia as evidence.

Summers' life took a drastic turn in 2009, when he required surgery to remove 17.5 inches of his small intestine after experiencing stomach pain. After the surgery, he woke up and, "being a stand-up comic, I sort of joked with the doctor, ‘Do I have cancer?’ And he says, ‘As a matter of fact, you do.'"

He was originally misdiagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma and given six months to live before another oncologist determined that is was actually chronic lymphocytic leukemia. But during the four-month period between diagnoses, his family thought he was dying.

"The whole story about your life flashes in front of you," he says. He recalls phoning his wife from his taxi and saying, "'I’m not going to see the kids get married. I’m not going to see our grandchildren. I’m going to be dead.'"

"I was a mess. I was confused. I didn’t know what the hell was going on," he explains.

After a tough 2-year battle with the illness, he came out on the other side only to have a taxi he was in hydroplane and crash into a highway median in 2012, breaking every bone in his face in the process.

The accident led to memory loss, which Summers feared would affect his career should he host another show.

"It was really frightening," he says of the nine-month recovery, which ultimately forced him to embrace the fact that "there’s no time like the present."

The revelation has led him to create an autobiographical one-man play, which is chronicled in the new documentary On Your Marc. And now, after three years of cognitive therapy, Summers says his OCD is "80 percent cured."

"It’s like retraining your mind not to have the intrusive thoughts and not to do the repetitive actions," he explains.

And luckily, there's no slime to deal with anymore.

Kudos to Summers for sharing his incredible journey:

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

H/T: People, Twitter

More from News

Ted Cruz; Tucker Carlson
The Tucker Carlson Show

Tucker Carlson And Ted Cruz Get Into Shouting Match Over Iran In Bonkers Interview Clip

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz—a harsh Donald Trump critic-turned-MAGA minion—sat down with fired Fox News personality Tucker Carlson for the conservative influencer's self-produced online content,The Tucker Carlson Show, for the Tucker Carlson Network.

On Tuesday, Carlson shared a 1.5-minute clip revealing that things got contentious when the pair touched on the Trump administration's escalating tensions with Iran.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump; Barack Obama
Suzanne Plunkett-Pool/Getty Images; Scott Olson/Getty Images

Resurfaced Trump Tweet Criticizing Obama Over Iran Comes Back To Bite Him

Amid tensions with Iran, President Donald Trump was criticized for hypocrisy after social media users resurfaced a 2013 tweet in which he accused former President Barack Obama of planning an attack on Iran because of his "inability to negotiate properly."

Trump has declined to clarify whether the U.S. is edging closer to launching strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, following a warning from Iran’s supreme leader against any attack and a rejection of Trump’s demand for surrender.

Keep ReadingShow less
​​Elon Musk
Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images

Anti-Elon Banner at Stanford

Stanford University graduates were given creative advice from above as an airplane flew over the graduation ceremony with a banner reading, “CONGRATS! DON’T WORK FOR ELON.”

The moment was captured last Sunday during the university’s 134th Commencement ceremony, where the Class of 2025 received their degrees at Stanford Stadium.

Keep ReadingShow less
Simone Ashley; Brad Pitt in 'F1'
Arnold Jerocki/L'Oreal/Getty Images

'F1' Director Speaks Out After Fan Outrage Over 'Bridgerton' Star's Scenes Getting Cut From Film

Once the F1 Grand Prix bug bites you, it's hard to let the passion and drive for the sport go, and most fans are eager to consume any additional content, from interviews to documentaries to full-length films.

Coming later this month is F1, starring Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, who missed his shot at stardom in a near-fatal accident in the 1990s. Thirty years later, his former team is struggling to succeed and convince him to come back to the track, but this time, he has to learn that it's not something he can do alone.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sabrina Carpenter attends the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style."
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Sabrina Carpenter claps back

Sabrina Carpenter’s latest album has caused quite a stir in people's espresso after she revealed the cover art in a post on X.

On June 11th, the American singer posted the image of herself on her hands and knees, wearing a black bodycon dress with a ribbon and black heels. Carpenter’s hand touches the knee of a mystery man wearing a black suit who is seen gripping a lock of the bombshell blonde’s hair.

Keep ReadingShow less