Vanna White said Alex Trebek has a strong enough will to “conquer” his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
The “Wheel of Fortune” hostess was at the 26th Annual Race to Erase MS gala in Los Angeles on Friday when she praised Alex Trebek’s strength amid his diagnosis to Entertainment Weekly.
“He’s hanging in there,” White, 62, said. “He is a strong man and has such a will to conquer this.”
ALEX TREBEK WAS ‘WRITHING IN PAIN’ BETWEEN ‘JEOPARDY!’ TAPINGS BATTLING CANCER
White then revealed Trebek, 78, told her about his diagnosis before he announced it publicly on March 6.
“We’re a family,” she explained. “We've been together for over 30 years. Even though ‘Jeopardy!’ is different from ‘Wheel,’ we're kind of the same."
The “Jeopardy!” host opened up about his cancer treatment in an interview on CBS Sunday Morning.
"This got really bad," Trebek admitted to host Jane Pauley in a preview of the interview. "I was on the floor writhing in pain. It went from a 3 to an 11. And I just couldn’t believe. I didn’t know what was happening."
"And it happened three or four times a day while we were taping," he explained. "So that was a little — little rough on me."
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Still, Trebek — who has been the host of "Jeopardy!" since 1984 — wanted to push through, despite one instance where he "barely" made it to his dressing room and ultimately "cried in pain" when he got there.
"And, the producers were very kind. They said, 'Look, if you don't wanna do the show, we'll just cancel taping.' I said, 'No. We're here. We're doing the shows,'" he insisted.
Fox News' Mariah Haas contributed to this report.