Pat Sajak’s Daughter Maggie Reveals Health Update on ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Host Following Hospitalization

Pat Sajak’s daughter, Maggie, may have made Wheel of Fortune history Monday night, filling in as a guest letter turner while Vanna White took over as host, but the whole experience was “bittersweet” as she told ABC News’ Paula Farris on Tuesday’s Good Morning America.

“It’s bittersweet because obviously, the circumstances, you know, was that my dad couldn’t be there,” she explained. The longtime game show host was hospitalized in November for a blocked intestine, undergoing surgery that required him to take several weeks of filming off, although he is currently taping episodes of Wheel of Fortune that will begin airing next week.

Maggie recalled she knew things were serious when her dad began to complain of intense abdominal pain: “He’s not a big complainer,” she said of her dad. “I could tell he was taking it seriously. We don’t usually, you know, go into the emergency room for little things.”

Sajak said he credits his daughter with the speed of his recovery, joking, “To this day, I don’t think I’m allowed to pick up anything heavier than a pillow.”

Maggie then called it “amazing” to see her dad getting back to work after such a scary turn for his health.

“It was definitely really scary,” she said. “I’d like to say I was a trooper at the beginning. I wasn’t. But I pulled myself together and I’m just so happy he’s back in action and doing what he does.”

Preparing for her own role on the show, Maggie revealed that White came to their house the night before the taping and used the refrigerator to practice the letter turning.

“It is more complicated, you know, like I said, with his job, they make it look easy, after all these years, and they’re so great at their jobs,” Maggie confessed. “But you know, it is more complicated than you think.”

Photo credit: Wheel of Fortune