Seinfeld star Michael Richards revealed he had 'months to live' after prostate cancer diagnosis in new memoir

Seinfeld star Michael Richards has revealed he was given ‘months to live’ after he was diagnosed with cancer years ago. In his soon-to-be released memoir, Entrances and Exits, the 74-year-old said he was forced to undergo removing his whole prostate or risk dying.

The actor, known for his role as Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld’s nine-season run, revealed that he was diagnosed with stage 1 prostate cancer in 2018 after a routine check-up detected elevated PSA levels.

In an interview with US weekly magazine People on Thursday (May 23), he said his then nine-year-old son motivated him to find a way to live longer. He said: "I thought, 'Well, this is my time. I'm ready to go'. But then my son came to mind just a few seconds later and I heard myself saying, 'I've got a nine-year-old and I'd like to be around for him. Is there any way I can get a little more life going?'"

Richards said if he hadn't followed the doctor's advice to remove his entire prostate he would “probably would have been dead in about eight months". The actor said he decided to write the memoir, which will be released on June 4, as he wanted "to do a full review of my life".

In the interview, he also reflected on the 2006 racial slur incident that significantly impacted his career and pushed him out of the spotlight, but he’s not expecting a comeback story.

He said: "I was immediately sorry the moment I said it onstage. My anger was all over the place, and it came through hard and fast. Anger is quite a force. But it happened. Rather than run from it, I dove into the deep end and tried to learn from it. It hasn’t been easy."

He added: "Crisis managers wanted me to do damage control. But as far as I was concerned, the damage was inside of me." During a stand-up show at West Hollywood's Laugh Factory in November 2006, Richards went on a tirade and hurled racial slurs at several hecklers, who were reportedly Black.

Richards explained: "I'm not racist. I have nothing against Black people. The man who told me I wasn’t funny had just said what I’d been saying to myself for a while. I felt put down. I wanted to put him down."