Longtime ESPN Anchor Reveals Cancer Diagnosis: Jay Harris to Undergo Surgery

One of ESPN’s longtime anchors revealed his cancer diagnosis today.

Jay Harris, the SportsCenter anchor who has been with the network since 2003, revealed he has prostate cancer on Good Morning America Thursday.

JUST IN: ESPN @SportsCenter anchor @JayHarrisESPN shares prostate cancer diagnosis: “I’m having surgery on Tuesday. I'll be away from SportsCenter for about a month to recover. Then I'm coming back better than ever.” pic.twitter.com/CUM92LMRif

— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 5, 2025

“I’m having surgery on Tuesday. I’ll be away from SportsCenter for about a month to recover,” Harris said on Good Morning America. “Then I’m coming back better than ever.”

Harris says his doctor says he should be able to make a full recovery and that his cancer has not spread.

“My doctor is quite optimistic,” Harris said. “From my last scan nothing has spread. So once we take out the prostate hopefully that will be it.”

He mentioned to GMA host Michael Strahan how he had told his friends the news on a golf trip very recently, and how important it is for men to discuss their health with each other.

“We talked about doctor’s appointments and ailments and family histories and things that we wouldn’t have had a conversation about because I figured I needed to share,” he said. “We all need to talk about these things because we all have them in our families. By not talking about them, we just, I hate to be morbid, we sentence ourselves to death.”

Here’s to a speedy recovery for the beloved anchor.