Jimmy Kimmel on his newborn's heart surgery

Late on Monday night, the new Jimmy Kimmel Live show had an unusual start. The opening monologue by the host was not a joke but in fact, an emotional matter, as he decided to express his gratitude after he and wife Molly McNearny welcomed a baby boy into the world on April 12. Jimmy revealed that the baby was born with a heart-disease that required the doctors to perform an open heart surgery on him.

Visibly shaken and trying to hold back tears, Jimmy said, “On Monday morning, Dr Vaughn Starnes opened his chest and fixed one of the two defects in his heart. He went in there with a scalpel and did some kind of magic that I couldn’t even begin to explain. He opened the valve, and the operation was a success. It was the longest three hours of my life.” E! News reports that on Sunday, the baby was finally taken home from the hospital. “He’s doing great. He’s eating. He’s sleeping. He peed on his mother today while she was changing his diaper.  He’s doing all the things that he’s supposed to do”, he clarified, and went on to thank numerous doctors, nurses and several others, including his frenemy Matt Damon.