Check out these sweet photos of Jimmy Kimmel’s 3-month-old son
It was the baby announcement heard ’round the world.
Earlier this year, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel returned to his show to announce the birth of his fourth child, a baby boy named William “Billy” Kimmel.
But what should have been a happy occasion for Kimmel and his wife Molly turned into a scary situation when Billy was found to have a very serious heart defect.
An emotional Kimmel recounted the experience on his show.
A warning, if you haven’t seen this already: It’s a tearjerker, albeit one with a happy ending:
The video was all over the news after it aired, and has gotten more than 11 million views since it was posted on May 1.
In the video, Kimmel emotionally described his family’s medical scare and how it underscored to him that everyone should have access to affordable health insurance and quality medical insurance despite having preexisting conditions. While his statements did cause some controversy, regardless of which side of the political aisle you fall on, the one thing we could all agree on is the hope that little Billy would be OK.
Thankfully, three months after the ordeal, Kimmel’s wife Molly McNearney has been posting new pictures of Billy on social media, and he appears to be a happy, healthy baby:
Billy's looking out for a lot of his buddies at Children's Hospital. Remind your Congresspeople to protect them. pic.twitter.com/UbFp2UgqGH
— Molly McNearney (@mollymcnearney) July 21, 2017
He even went to work with Kimmel, who like any proud papa would, got in on the my-child-is-a-genuis game.
“He’s doing great,” Kimmel told the Hollywood Reporter. “Young Billy made his first visit to our office today. He’s juggling. He’s translating Flaubert from French into English. He’s really an amazing kid. No—he smiles. That’s pretty much it. He is very interested in ceiling fans. He likes those a lot. I could get him to pay the same amount for Netflix just to watch ceiling fans.”
He shared this Instagram on July 21 with the caption “Billy is three months old today and doing great. Thanks for all your love & support and please remind your Congresspeople that every kid deserves the care Billy got.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BW0keD7l3MY/?hl=en&taken-by=jimmykimmel
While Kimmel noted that Billy is doing well, he also said he has a long road ahead of him.
“He has to have two more open heart surgeries,” Kimmel told the Hollywood Reporter. “We would like to get them over with and not have to think about it all the time, but it could definitely be worse.”
But as you can see from the caption on McNearney’s tweet, this isn’t just the story of a baby overcoming the odds. Kimmel spoke out against the effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act while talking about his son, a move that got support from people like former president Barack Obama but also garnered criticism from many Republicans.
Billy’s story has become a political battleground of sorts, with one Congressman even using what he calls the “Jimmy Kimmel test” when evaluating healthcare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SToeM55KMzU
The healthcare debate will continue to rage on. But in the meantime, Billy will hopefully continue to smile at ceiling fans and rock all of his horizontal stripe onesies as adorably as he is now.
Thank you @lisamurkowski, @SenatorCollins, and @SenJohnMcCain for looking out for kids with pre-existing conditions like ours. Lots of love pic.twitter.com/DP3nQsLTXQ
— Molly McNearney (@mollymcnearney) July 28, 2017
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McNearney and Kimmel’s daugher, Jane, is 3 and as adorable as her brother. Kimmel shared a picture with her on Instagram last spring to capture her first trip to the movie theater.
“Jane’s first movie in a theater – The Boss Baby – made it all the way and, while the credits rolled, she shouted “let’s watch it again!” Two little thumbs up,” he wrote.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSU1rVCFTxV/?hl=en&taken-by=jimmykimmel
Kimmel has two other children from his first marriage: 26-year-old Katherine and 23-year-old Kevin.