Ray Romano is speaking out about a recent health scare he had. The Everybody Loves Raymond star appeared on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast, where he revealed that he had a nearly completely blocked artery in his heart and needed surgery.
Due to a 90% artery blockage, the actor had a stent placed in his heart. Doctors informed Romano that he had a condition that could have resulted in a widowmaker heart attack.
“I had to have a stent put in,” Romano explained after they began talking about health, diets, and aging. “It’s a good thing we found it before I had a heart attack.”
Romano revealed that he is now taking cholesterol medication and regrets not seeking treatment sooner. “If I could go back 20 years, I would have started taking medication,” he said.
Romano was diagnosed with pre-diabetes in addition to having a heart procedure.
ET spoke with Romano earlier this month, and he revealed that he went to see a cardiologist after experiencing chest pains while directing and starring in his film, Somewhere in Queens.
“I called my agent at one a.m. because I couldn’t sleep, and I said, ‘I can’t do it, I can’t do this,'” Romano explained to ET. “Because I had to go to my cardiologist in New York and get on the treadmill and do a stress test because I was having chest pains,” she says.
Romano previously discussed his Everybody Loves Raymond co-star, Peter Boyle, who played Romano’s on-screen father, Frank Barone, having a heart attack on the CBS set in 1999.
One of the set’s assistant directors noticed Boyle’s chest pains and constant coughing and realized his condition was serious.
Boyle died in 2006, at the age of 71.
