Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh says he has 'advanced lung cancer'

(FOX NEWS) -- Longtime influential conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh announced on his show Monday he was diagnosed with "advanced lung cancer," a shocking announcement in which he said he will miss shows for treatment.

"This day has been one of the most difficult days in recent memory, for me, because I’ve known this moment was coming," Limbaugh said. "I'm sure that you all know by now that I really don't like talking about myself and I don't like making things about me… one thing that I know, that has happened over the 31-plus years of this program is that there has been an incredible bond that had developed between all of you and me."

Limbaugh then told his audience that his job has provided him with the "greatness satisfaction and happiness" of his life.

"So, I have to tell you something today that I wish I didn't have to tell you. It's a struggle for me, because I had to inform my staff earlier today," he said. "I can't help but feel that I'm letting everybody down with. The upshot is that I have been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer."

Limbaugh told listeners that the cancer will keep him off the air on certain days when he receives treatment. He said the diagnosis has been confirmed by two medical institutions since he first realized something was wrong on Jan. 12, when he experienced shortness of breath.

"I thought about not telling anybody," he said. "It is what it is. You know me, I'm the mayor of Realville. This has happened and my intention is to come here every day I can, and do this program as normally and competently and expertly as I do each and every day because that is the source of my greatest satisfaction professionally, personally."

"I told the staff today that I have a deeply personal relationship with God that I do not proselytize about, but I do, and I have been working that relationship tremendously," he said. "I am, at the moment, experiencing zero symptoms."

Limbaugh said he will undergo further testing and plans to "push ahead and keep everything as normal" as he can.

"I felt that I had to tell you because that's the kind of relationship that I feel like I have with those of you in this audience," he said. "Over the years, a lot of people have been very nice, telling me how much this program has meant to them but, whatever that is, it pales in comparison to what you all have meant to me."

The radio veteran said he "can't describe" the feeling but he's aware his audience understands him. He said he considers his listeners to be to be part of a “family type relationship” with him, adding that his job has given him the “greatest satisfaction and happiness” he’s experienced.

"The rest of the world may not," Limbaugh said. "But I know that you do."

Limbaugh called his listeners one of "the greatest sources of confidence" that he's ever had in his life.

"I hope I will be talking about this as little as necessary in the coming days, but we've got a great bunch of doctors, a great team assembled, we're at full speed ahead on this," Limbaugh said. "It's just now a matter of implementing what we are going to be told later this week."

He said he "hopes" to be back on Thursday.

"If not, it'll be as soon as I can," Limbaugh said. "Every day I'm not here, I'll be thinking of you and missing you."

Limbaugh’s announcement come at a tumultuous political time, as the conclusion of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial nears.

“It’s shocking to the industry, and it should be shocking to the political establishment,” Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, the trade industry publication for talk radio, said of Limbaugh’s disclosure.

He started his first national radio show in 1988 from New York, later relocating to Palm Beach, Florida.

The hyper-partisan broadcaster has dominated talk radio with a raucous, liberal-bashing style that made him one of the most influential voices of American right-wing politics and inspired other conservative broadcasters including Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly.

“Rush you are in our prayers,” Beck tweeted. “We live in a time of modern miracles. Millions are praying you find one.”

Limbaugh said he intends to work as much as possible. He also said he had focused more “intensely” in the past two weeks on what he called his “deeply personal relationship” with God.

The media figure’s endorsement and friendship is a conservative political treasure. His idol, Ronald Reagan, wrote a letter that Limbaugh read on the air in December 1992 and which sealed his reputation among conservatives: “You’ve become the number one voice for conservatism in our country,” Reagan wrote.

Two years later, Limbaugh would be so widely credited as key to Republicans’ takeover of Congress for the first time in 40 years, he was deemed an honorary member of the new class.

Limbaugh has frequently been accused of hate-filled speech, including bigotry and blatant racism through his comments and sketches such as “Barack the Magic Negro,” a song featured on his show that said Obama “makes guilty whites feel good” and that the politician is “black, but not authentically.”

His popularity has survived brickbats and thrived despite personal woes.

In 2003, Limbaugh admitted an addiction to painkillers and entered rehabilitation. Authorities opened an investigation into alleged “doctor shopping,” saying he received up to 2,000 pills from four doctors over a period of six months, but he ultimately reached a deal with prosecutors that dismissed the single charge.