Jimmy Kimmel made an emotional return to his late-night show on Monday, holding his 7-month-old son in his arms and passionately campaigning for children's healthcare.
The "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" host had taken a weeklong hiatus to be with his son, Billy Kimmel, who recently underwent his second heart surgery, CNN noted.
Kimmel did his opening monologue with his young son cradled in his arms.
"I was out last week because this guy had heart surgery," Jimmy Kimmel said, according ABC News.
"But look he's fine everybody, he may have pooped but he's fine," he continued, choking up. "Daddy cries on TV but Billy doesn't. It's unbelievable."
Billy Kimmel was born with a congenital heart disease and underwent emergency open-heart surgery when he was just 3 days old, with a second surgery scheduled for several months later, The HuffPost said.
Jimmy Kimmel told viewers that his son was doing great and recovering well.
"He has one more surgery — this is amazing — he had an operation a week ago," he said, per ABC News.
Over the months Jimmy Kimmel has been vocal about the national healthcare debate, using his show to campaign for the rights of families to have access to medical care.
On Monday he made a passionate speech about the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which ran out of funding earlier this year and has lapsed due to a political stalemate, People magazine noted.
Kimmel was urging Congress to restore the program, which was introduced several decades ago and covered about 9 million children, according to Sky News.
However, he said children's healthcare was on the "backburner while they (politicians) work out their new tax plans, which means parents of children with cancer, diabetes and heart problems are about to get letters saying their coverage could be cut off next month," Sky News reported.
Jimmy Kimmel urged viewers to put pressure on Congress to fund CHIP for 2018, encouraging them to call the House and Senate phone lines at 202-225-3121, ABC News noted.
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