John Tesh says ‘faith-filled’ wife saved his life after doctors gave him 18 months to live

After near­ly a decade of fight­ing can­cer, John Tesh is cred­it­ing one per­son for keep­ing him alive — his wife of 33 years, actress Con­nie Sel­l­ec­ca.

The 73-year-old musi­cian and for­mer Enter­tain­ment Tonight host opened up on Good Morn­ing Amer­i­ca about his ongo­ing bat­tle with prostate can­cer, first diag­nosed in 2015.

“I’m incred­i­bly grate­ful, because it’s been lit­er­al­ly a 10-and-a-half-year jour­ney from when I was first diag­nosed,” Tesh shared. “The doc­tors said, ‘You should prob­a­bly get your affairs in order because we can’t oper­ate on this.’”

At the time, Tesh was told he had only 18 months to live. Dev­as­tat­ed, he admit­ted that he near­ly gave up — until his wife refused to let him sur­ren­der.

“My wife, who is a faith-filled Ital­ian girl from the Bronx, just rose up and said, ‘This is not us,’” Tesh recalled. “She changed every­thing.”

A Battle of Faith and Love

Tesh con­fessed that the diag­no­sis almost destroyed their mar­riage. Strug­gling with alco­hol and despair, he said, “I was in the mid­dle of a pity par­ty, and she wasn’t hav­ing any of it.”

“It breaks cou­ples apart, prostate can­cer, and it almost did us,” he explained. “But it became a couple’s bat­tle — and we won it.”

Now, ten years lat­er, the “Round­ball Rock” com­pos­er says he’s alive because of Connie’s strength, faith, and relent­less opti­mism.

“If you unplug that piece from my jour­ney, I’m not here,” Tesh said. “I can look back and see the strength that Con­nie impart­ed to me every step of the way.”

The cou­ple, mar­ried since 1992, share one daugh­ter, and Tesh is also a proud step­fa­ther. After more than three decades togeth­er, he says their love has nev­er been stronger.

“The expec­ta­tion that I’d live as long as my Aunt Omegene — 100 years old — it was a bat­tle, but we fought it togeth­er.”

Through the dark­est moments, faith, fam­i­ly, and love car­ried him through.