Jimmy Kimmel’s 17-month-old son Billy had a scary start. The toddler, who celebrated his first birthday on April 21, was born with a congenital heart defect and has undergone two surgeries in his short lifetime.
It’s been nine months since Billy’s second procedure, and the little boy is thriving, according to his proud dad. “He’s doing great! Yeah, he’s doing great.” Kimmel told Us Weekly at the L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade charity event in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 8. (The outdoor food and wine tasting benefited Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and the fight against childhood cancer.)
The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host, 50, enjoyed the event with wife Molly McNearney, Billy and their 4-year-old daughter, Jane. There’s a good chance Jane hit up the dessert vendors first!
“It’s hard to get her to eat,” the Emmy nominee admitted to Us. “We have to promise her ice cream to get her to eat anything.”
Later, during the silent auction, a meal at Kimmel and McNeary’s home went for $100,000. “These are very expensive dinners,” Kimmel told Us. “There’s a lot of pressure to make them good.”
The former game show host and McNeary, a head cowriter and producer on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, tied the knot in July 2013. “He loves gifts, and he loves to feed people. He’s really the ultimate host,” McNeary gushed to Glamour in 2014. “He’s the wife in the marriage. He even made our Christmas card and a personalized stamp too. I really am married to Martha Stewart.”
Kimmel also shares kids Katie, 27, and Kevin, 24, with his ex-wife, Gina Kimmel.
With reporting by Emily Marcus.