Porter

Billy Porter says a poorly treated urinary infection nearly killed him.

On Wednesday, the 56-year-old Broadway icon appeared on “Today” to promote his new children’s book, “Songbird in the Light,” and discussed a recent health scare that’s given the actor a new outlook on life.

“I am on the road to complete recovery,” he said, tearing up. “It is a gift to be alive. It’s still emotional to talk about it.”

Last year, Porter crossed the pond and made his West End debut starring as the Emcee in the musical “Cabaret,” which ran Jan. 28 through May 24 at London’s Playhouse Theatre. The Tony-winning actor said he was having a ball and living his purpose, but then he got a urinary infection.

“The medicine in the U.K. is trash,” he told “Outlaws” podcast host TS Madison earlier this month. “Four rounds of antibiotics and 10 to 12 weeks later, it’s a kidney infection with kidney stones.”

Porter eventually thought the infection had cleared up and returned to New York, where last fall he was gearing up for a Broadway revival of the musical starring as the production’s first Black Emcee, but his history-making run was cut short.

“I go into rehearsals for ‘Cabaret’ on Broadway … and everything seems fine, and a month in, the kidney stone pain comes back,” he told Madison.

On a Tuesday in September, Porter checked himself into the hospital due to debilitating pain, and then the “Pose” star subsequently fell into a coma and woke up days later on a Saturday evening.

“They went in to do a routine check. They saw that the kidney stone was trapped in my urethra, and they went in to put a stent in, redirect the urine, blast me with real antibiotics — not U.K. antibiotics — and blow up the kidney stones. When they got in there, there was so much pus and bile and infection behind the stone, it bubbled up and I went uroseptic in minutes.”

“I was dead for three days,” Porter said.

Porter said he was placed on an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine, which, according to Mayo Clinic, pumps blood outside of the body to a heart-lung machine, removes carbon dioxide from the blood and sends oxygen-rich blood back to the body. It’s essentially a life-support system.

While Porter was in a coma, he said, one of his legs went into compartment syndrome, which happens when there’s too much pressure around your muscles, causing reduced blood and oxygen flow and possibly leading to necrosis. “They had to cut me open on either side of my leg while I was in a coma, from my knee to my hip, and leave it open for two days so they could save my leg,” he told Madison, visibly choked up over the ordeal.

Porter told “Today” that the experience was mind-altering yet also inspiring. “My work here on this earth is not done, and that gives me hope.”

His new children’s book, “Songbird in the Light,” which follows a young boy who grapples with bullying while learning to embrace his talent and love himself, hit bookshop shelves this week.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) endorsed former Rep. Katie Porter, her protege and former Harvard Law School student, for California governor on Thursday.

“From the moment Katie set foot in my consumer law class, I knew that she would be a warrior for working families,” Warren said in a statement, citing Porter’s work on the foreclosure crisis as well as her questioning of corporate leaders and members of the Trump administration while wielding a white board in hearings when she represented an Orange County district in Congress.

“No one will stand up to Trump with more grit and determination than Katie,” Warren said. “But just as importantly, she will champion the kind of bold, progressive vision that California workers and families deserve.”

The endorsement comes on the cusp of the California Democratic Party’s convention in San Francisco this weekend, at a time that there is no true front-runner in the crowded race to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Porter was initially viewed as having a potential edge in the race, but her prospects dimmed after videos emerged in October of the UC Irvine law professor scolding a reporter and swearing at an aide. She expressed remorse for her behavior.

Warren and Porter, who met more than two decades ago, have a long-standing relationship, to the point that the senator is the namesake of one of Porter’s children.

Porter endorsed Warren during the 2020 presidential campaign, which caused consternation among some California Democrats since then-Sen. Kamala Harris, who as state attorney general appointed Porter in 2012 to oversee a $25-billion mortgage settlement with the nation’s top banks, was also running for the White House.

Porter pointed to their shared values, such as fighting to protect consumer protection in Congress, as she responded to Warren’s endorsement.

“Senator Warren and I fought together in Congress to hold Big Banks and giant corporations that cheat the American people accountable,” Porter said. “From the classroom to the Capitol, we have made … fighting for working families our lifework. I’ll be a governor who is unbought, undeterred, and unwilling to continue the special interest status quo that has left too many Californians behind.”