‘Survivor’ Host Jeff Probst Recalls Rare Form of Amnesia: ‘I Had No Idea Who I Was’

Jeff Probst is opening up about a recent health scare that temporarily left him with “absolutely no memory.” Appearing on a recent episode of Live with Kelly and Ryan, the Survivor host, 58, said he began experiencing concerning symptoms several months ago while booking a trip to Las Vegas for himself and his wife, during which he realized he was unable to remember his wife’s birthday.

“It gets to your wife’s birthdate. And I went, ‘What is my wife’s birthdate?’ And I couldn’t figure it out, so I texted my wife and I said, ‘Could you call me?’” Probst recalled, according to PEOPLE. “So she called me. She said, ‘What’s going on?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. I don’t really know what’s happening? I don’t know anything. Like, where are the kids?’ She said, ‘They’re at school.’ I said, ‘Where are you?’ She said, ‘I’m at work.’ I said, ‘Something’s wrong.’”

As the hours passed, Probst’s condition worsened to the point where he had “zero recollection of anything that was happening to me.”

“I had no idea who I was, where I was,” he explained. “I even wrote a note on my laptop, I wrote a note that said, ‘For our records, I have no idea why I’m wearing these clothes, I have no idea where our kids are, I have no idea what day it is, I have no idea why I’m writing this.’ And then a little later I type, ‘I just read this. Have no memory of writing it.’”

According to Probst, his memory came back the following morning as he was on his way to get an MRI. After his initial fears that he could possibly be experiencing early dementia, a neurosurgeon revealed that he had been experiencing transient global amnesia, a sudden episode of temporary memory loss.

“[The neurosurgeon] figures out that — what I had for three hours, I had absolutely no memory, don’t know what I did during those three hours — he said it’s called, global transient amnesia, or TGA,” he explained to co-hosts Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. “And it’s just what happens, you lose your memory.”

Assuring viewers that he is “100 percent” fine now, Probst added that the scary experience has made him appreciate life a little more.

“Now, more than ever I think of Fridays,” he said. “I think of the weekend and I’m like, ‘I got one more weekend, let’s go.’”

Probst has hosted Survivor since its debut season back in 2000. The competition series will air its Season 40 premiere Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.