“Mike & Molly” star Billy Gardell says the bariatric surgery he underwent in 2021 turned around his health after years of struggling with his weight, telling a podcast host the procedure “probably saved my life.”
The 57-year-old actor, appearing on the “Breaking Bread” podcast, said he had developed type 2 diabetes along with what he described as “some cholesterol stuff, some heart stuff” before deciding to have the surgery. He recalled his doctor joking that “after 50 the warranties start running out.”
“You can’t outrun those,” Gardell said. “I think the only reason I was able to survive as long as I did is one, I got decent genetics, and two was I played some sports when I was younger. So I was a big fat guy, but I was a pretty solid fat guy, and I could carry the weight for a long time, but eventually you can’t outrun that.”
Gardell said his doctor eventually told him, “You have to do something,” and a knee injury that left him unable to even walk for exercise pushed him to act.
“I got to the point where I hurt my knee and I couldn’t even walk for exercise, and I was like, I have to do something drastic. So I got the surgery, and it’s been a couple years now and I probably saved my life. I’m not on any medication. Diabetes is gone.”
Five years after the operation, Gardell said he has to be highly disciplined about eating, since his stomach now holds only 12 ounces at a time. Even so, he said the mental pull toward overeating hasn’t disappeared entirely, describing it as “the fat Hulk is still running around” in his head.
Beyond the medical improvements, Gardell said the weight loss opened up everyday activities he once couldn’t manage, such as hiking with his wife or buying clothes off the rack at the mall.
“It’s just those little freedoms that you go, ‘Wow, man. I’m so grateful I can do this now,'” he said. “I know those are simple, stupid things, but they mean the world to me.”
Gardell said his wife, Patty Knight, and their son, William, were his biggest reasons for getting healthy.
“It was like I don’t want to survive what I’ve survived, succeed where I succeeded, and then not be able to get out of a chair. So I had to look that in its face. And for anybody out there struggling, if I can do it, you can do it. And don’t let nobody tell you different. Do whatever it takes.”
Gardell said he used to fluctuate by about 30 pounds a year before the surgery, and at his heaviest he weighed 379 pounds. In a December 2025 interview with People, he said he now keeps his weight steady through diet and exercise, fluctuating between 210 and 215 pounds.
Gardell became widely known for playing Melissa McCarthy’s husband on “Mike & Molly,” which ran for six seasons from 2010 to 2016.
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