Inside Former 'Double Dare' Star Marc Summers' Secret Struggles
Marc Summers is opening up in a revealing new interview about his crippling struggle to overcome Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, cancer and a horrific accident that nearly changed his life forever.
Summers revealed to People how, among other issues, he became fixated on constantly cleaning his home, and, while out at the grocery store, he would need to systematically check all the labels of products lining the shelves of an aisle.
In 1995, he discovered he suffered from OCD, but the eye-opening revelation only set back his career.
"Most people weren't aware what OCD was back in the late '90s," he said. "I was supposed to be hosting Hollywood Squares and then lost the job because people didn't understand what Obsessive Compulsive Disorder was, and they were spreading rumors that I was difficult to work with and uncooperative, none of which was true. But people were not given the tools to learn what it was."
The former Double Dare host, who recalled how his OCD made him desperate to race backstage to change after he was slimed on the popular children's show, was eventually able to find a new gig on the Food Network show Unwrapped.
Unfortunately, however, Summers, 66, suffered other setbacks in life.
He had a portion of his small intestine removed in 2009 after he got a stomachache and was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
"I woke up and, being a stand-up comic, I sort of joked with the doctor, 'Do I have cancer?' And he says, 'As a matter of fact, you do,'" revealed Summers, who underwent two years of chemotherapy and is now in remission.
In 2012, Summers' life again took a nasty turn when the Philadelphia taxi he was riding in hydroplaned and slammed into a divider. The powerful impact broke all the bones in his face.
"It was really frightening," Summers sad of the accident, which left him battling memory loss and took almost a year for him to recover.
Still, said Summers, he has managed to glean an important lesson from his devastating experiences: "There's no time like the present."
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