Seinfeld’s Michael Richards Talks Cancer, Controversies in Rare TV Interview

Actor and comedian Michael Richards is back in the spotlight to promote his new memoir, Entrances and Exits.

The Seinfeld alum, 74, discussed the book in a rare TV interview on the Tuesday, June 4, episode of Today, telling host Hoda Kotb that he hopes people’s main takeaway from the memoir is that he’s “human.”

“There’s a good, bad and an ugly coursing through all these things, striving to be a better person,” Richards explained. “The entrances and exits, what. come into, what I come out of, what I go into, what I come out of [are] always so ongoing, coming and going. And just discovering myself along the way.”

One of the topics Richards addresses in the book is his infamous racist outburst during a 2006 stand-up gig at Hollywood’s Laugh Factory. Footage of Richards calling an audience member the N-word during the set leak, after which he retreated from the public eye.

Richards, who publicly apologized for his comments on an episode of the Late Show With David Letterman, previously called the controversy a “reality check” in an exclusive 2015 interview with Us Weekly.

“I’d only been doing stand-up at the time that situation happened about seven or eight months and I just lost my patience that night because people were heckling me and not letting me work on my material and I lost my cool,” he said at the time. “And it is what it is! I’ve moved on.”

On Tuesday, Richards told Kotb, 59, that he has become “more aware of myself” since the incident. “Anger had a hold of me,” he stated. “I canceled myself out, take an exodus, get away from show business and see what the heck is going on inside me to have been so despicable that night, losing my cool and hurting people.”

Richards also opens up about his 2018 diagnosis with stage 1 prostate cancer, news of which only just went public last month. “I thought I was gonna go, really. I’d given into that,” he admitted. “And then, I found out that if we moved fast enough, we could get at the cancer.”

Richards said managed to beat cancer thanks to the help of a “great surgeon.” His health scare served as motivation to take “a big review of my life” with his book.

Today, Richards is enjoying life with his wife, Beth Skipp, and their son, Antonio. It was with his son that Richards said he watched Seinfeld all the way through for the first time a few years ago. (Richards also shares daughter Sophia with his ex-wife, Cathleen Lyons.)

“He was 9 at the time and we watched them from beginning to end,” he told Kotb. Noting that he was critical watching himself onscreen during the show’s original run from 1989 to 1998. As for his son’s favorite character? “Newman (Wayne Knight)” Richards revealed.

Richards followed up his nine-season run as Kramer on Seinfeld with roles in TV shows and movies such as David Copperfield, The Michael Richards Show, Bee Movie, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Walk the Light and Kirstie. His most recent acting credit was playing Daddy Hogwood in the 2019 film Faith, Hope & Love, per IMDb.