Pat Sajak Makes Heartfelt Announcement at End of ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Episode

Pat Sajak made a proud and heartfelt announcement at the end of Monday’s episode of Wheel of Fortune: His son Patrick Sajak has graduated from medical school, making him the father of a doctor. While speaking to his co-host Vanna White, Sajak asked if she minded if he did “a little parents bragging.”

“So you know my son, Patrick, you’ve known him all his life. Well he’s made it through medical school, and he is now officially Dr. Sajak, and we’re all thrilled.” He then joked that the only “troubling part” of the news is that “he insists that I call him Dr. Sajak.” He said that he and his wife Lesly Sajak, who also share daughter Maggie Sajak, “couldn’t be prouder” of Patrick.

Sajak, 74, also joked that he “tried to get [Patrick] into geriatrics, but he refused. But that’s a personal thing.” Perhaps he was alluding to his own recent experience with doctors, having undergone emergency surgery in 2019 for a blocked intestine. “Anyway, congratulations, son,” Sajak concluded, wrapping up the episode.

Sajak’s daughter Maggie also shared a few congratulatory words to celebrate her older brother’s feat, tweeting, “So proud of my big brother.” On Instagram, Maggie shared a smiling photo of the two of them, writing, “My big brother officially became a doctor today, and I am the MOST proud. Congrats @patricksajak, MD!!!”

Last year, after Sajak returned to hosting Wheel of Fortune following his emergency surgery and recovery, he wrote a sweet message to Maggie, who filled in as the letter-turner while Vanna White was busy fulfilling Sajak’s role as host. “It’s hard to express just how proud I am of my daughter, Maggie, for her poised and professional work on ‘Wheel’ this past week,” he tweeted in January 2020, captioning a photo of the two of them.

Sajak opened up about his emergency surgery on Good Morning America in December 2019, sharing that his blood pressure fell “dramatically” to the point where doctors had to wait until it lifted to do the surgery. “My wife and our daughter was with, and they were, you know, they didn’t know. I mean, you go in and they don’t know if I’m coming out.”

“You couldn’t do anything. I was in [a] fetal position, lying on the bed,” he continued. “They try to give you various drugs for the pain. And none of it — none — was working. And then they gave me something, I couldn’t even tell you the name of it, but suddenly, I wasn’t thinking about the pain. I just had these beautiful pastels and lovely faces coming out of it.”

Despite what sounds like a stressful situation, Sajak noted that his surgery was “completely successful” and that he didn’t have to make any major life changes following it.