Anthony Anderson gets candid about a health journey that began long before the public ever heard him talk about it. On the newest episode of TV One’s Uncensored, the actor and comedian opens up about being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at just 30 years old, at a time when his career was moving at full speed and his body was quietly sending warning signs he couldn’t ignore.
The diagnosis came during one of the busiest stretches of Anderson’s life. He had just finished filming Kangaroo Jack, was traveling nonstop to promote the film, and was simultaneously preparing to launch his first television series, All About the Andersons. In his words, everything was happening at once: meetings across town, city-to-city press runs, and constant motion.
But something felt off.
“I wasn’t feeling like my normal self,” Anderson shared. He described extreme fatigue, midday naps, and falling asleep on the couch during commercial breaks, all of which had never happened to him before.
Then came the night that changed everything.
Anderson recalled waking up around 11:30 p.m. and refilling a five-gallon water jug. Between late night and early morning, he drank all of it. “From 11:30 to 2 a.m., I drank five gallons of water,” he said. Every glass of water sent him back to the bathroom, creating a cycle that didn’t stop until morning.
When he woke up and realized the water was gone, the signs became impossible to ignore. “I was like, ‘Uh-oh. I think I have diabetes,’” Anderson said, noting that he recognized the symptoms from commercials and general awareness.
A visit to the doctor confirmed it. His glucose level was 246, nearly three times the normal level. The number was so alarming that Anderson received a call from his doctor before he even made it out of the hospital parking lot, telling him to turn around and come back immediately.
That’s when he officially heard the words: type 2 diabetes.
Interestingly, Anderson examines the disconnect between how he saw himself and what his body was actually experiencing. He admits that despite always being “a big dude,” he never viewed himself as unhealthy. He could dance, do the splits, play basketball, all things that made him feel athletic and agile.
“I never saw myself as a fat guy,” he said.
He even revisited a moment from his teenage years, when a doctor bluntly told him the truth he wasn’t ready to hear. When Anderson joked about having “big bones,” the doctor shut it down immediately. “There’s no such thing as big bones,” he told him. “You’re fat. Do something about it.”
At the time, Anderson didn’t change his lifestyle. He continued living the way he always had, comfortable in the belief that his mobility and talent outweighed the risks.
Years later, sitting on set one day, Anderson found himself scrolling through old photos of himself online, a moment he describes as going down a rabbit hole of “Anthony Anderson fat pictures.” That visual confrontation forced him to see what he had been denying.
“That’s when I realized I needed to make a change,” he said. More importantly, he realized he wanted to talk about it publicly.
UNCENSORED premieres Thursday, February 19, at 8 p.m./7 c. on TV One.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of TV One
