Food Bank For New York CityMarc Summers had to go through the ultimate challenge (and no, slime wasn't involved): He battled leukemia.
The former Double Dare host revealed in a radio interview with Philadelphia's WWMR's Preston and Steve show that he secretly battled cancer for five years but has since entered remission. After being diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2010, Summers underwent two years of chemotherapy.
Describing the experience as "hell," Summers, 63, told hosts Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison he didn't want to come forward because he was afraid of how it might affect his career.
"I've sort of compressed this thing and it's made me nuts," he said, as quoted by the Daily Mail. "I thought it was time to come out. I'm not covering up anymore—I've had it, I'm in remission and...I'm ready to move on."
Summers received the all-clear from his doctors in December, but admitted he debated coming forward when he participated in Oprah Winfrey's Where Are They Now? segment. He revealed, however, that he didn't feel as much of a connection with the media mogul as he did with the radio show hosts. Instead of talking about his cancer, Summers dished about how his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder got in the way of getting job offers.
"I was signed up to do the Hollywood Squares version that Tom Bergeron actually did," he said. "The next thing I knew, I was fired before we even got started, supposedly because my reputation was that I was difficult to work with because of the OCD."
He has been very open about his struggle with OCD in the past, telling Oprah, "I never knew what OCD was. I just thought, 'There's got to be something wrong with me. Am I crazy?'" Summer said in 1997. "And if you watch the first 65 episodes [of Double Dare], I never got a drop [of slime] on me."
He hosted the Nickelodeon hit game show from 1986-1992.
Summers, who is married and has two children, has been the host of Unwrapped, the Food Network's longest-running show, for 11 years.