Tragic Details About Carson Daly
Carson Daly first shot to fame in the '90s as host of MTV's "Total Request Live" (aka "TRL") and he's been on the airwaves ever since. From 2002 through 2019 he hosted his own late night show, "Last Call with Carson Daly," then he joined "TODAY" in 2013 where he still is today. And let's not forget he's been hosting "The Voice" since its first season in 2011.
Aside from crushing his professional goals, he's also had success on the personal front. After a shady breakup with Jennifer Love Hewitt and headline-making unions with Tara Reid and Christina Aguilera, Daly found true love with Siri Pinter. He first met the food blogger in 2005 when she worked on "Last Call with Carson Daly" and they married in 2015. Now, they're a growing family with four kids – Jackson, Etta, London, and Goldie – and Daly has become a doting dad. As he told Us Weekly in 2018, his wife and kiddos trump everything. So much so that when he's filming "The Voice" in Los Angeles, his only focus is getting the job done and returning home to New York. "I don't stick around to play golf or see friends," he told the mag. "I just want to get back to my family."
But as perfect as his life seems, Daly has had to deal with more than his share of heartbreak and quite a few challenges. Many of which he's spoken about candidly. These are the tragic details about Carson Daly.
Carson Daly lost his dad when he was just 5 years old
Carson Daly was dealt a major blow early on in life. His beloved dad, James "J.D." Daly, died of bladder cancer in 1979 when Carson was just 5 years old. As he shared on TODAY in 2013, he was too young to initially understand the loss. "I went upstairs and the room was pitch black, and my mom was in bed," he recalled of that fateful day. That's when she told him Dad wouldn't be coming back home. "I think I said something like, 'Mommy, I wondered if I could please have Daddy's money?'" Carson remembered. "She knew I couldn't quite comprehend what was going on."
To this day, he wishes they would've had the chance to become closer. "I have few memories around that time," Carson lamented on TODAY in July 2020. There's one cherished photograph, though, that he holds dear above all else. The image shows James mixing a cocktail behind a home bar in the '70s. "I have so few shared experiences with him, it's like a powerful moment," he said of the snap, which was taken less than a year before his father's death. "He may have been afraid in that picture, but he wasn't living in fear." Carson loves the photograph so much, in fact, that he actually used a green screen to recreate it during the initial pandemic lockdown. "That photo's been speaking to me over the past three months," he said of its appeal. "I've got so many questions about it."
His mother's death came as a complete shock
When Carson Daly was in his 20s, his family was again rocked by cancer when his mom, Pattie Daly Caruso, was diagnosed with breast cancer in the late '90s. While treatment left her with Type 1 diabetes, she beat the disease and appeared to be in perfect health. Then, suddenly, she died of a heart attack in September 2017.
In an emotional essay penned in honor of American Heart Month in 2019, Carson urged women to learn more about the link between heart health and diabetes – something he said his family knew nothing about. "The Voice" host also wrote candidly about the shock that came with Pattie's death. He had seen her just hours before when, in the middle of the night, he got a call from his older sister. His stepfather, Richard Caruso, was battling terminal cancer at the time, so Carson was sure the call was about him. Instead, he was told his mother had passed. "I still can't even relive that moment because of the double pump of it all," he wrote. "I was expecting it to be about my dad and it wasn't about my dad – it was about my mom, out of left field."
The grief is something he'll carry with him forever. In 2018, Carson wrote on Instagram, "I miss you every day and love you always." In 2021, he shared it's still tough, writing, "I only am able to carry on each day due to God's infinite will & strength & the love of my family."
His stepfather died just weeks later
As if losing his mother wasn't difficult enough, Carson Daly's stepfather, Richard Caruso, died of bone cancer in October 2017, just weeks after Pattie Daly Caruso. The TODAY co-host confirmed the news on Instagram, writing, "Pops passed away today with absolute dignity & pride." He also called him "the greatest man we ever knew," his hero, and his mentor. Indeed, Carson had an incredibly close relationship with Richard who entered his life not long after the passing of his biological dad. As he told TODAY, "God blessed me with two incredible dads."
Carson took time off the air to cope with his grief and when he returned to TODAY, he shared, "I realize the more pain that I feel losing my parents is testament to how much of an impact they made in my life." Their loss also had a lasting impact. In January 2019, Carson said his New Year's resolution was inspired by his parents' loss, which overhauled his entire approach to life. "My thing is just 24 hours," he said on TODAY. "Now I wake up and I'm like, thank you God, I got a new day, a fresh day."
As for their memory, it's something he carries with him every day. In celebration of Father's Day 2023, Carson took to Instagram to thank both dads, namely "the early love & strength I got from my dad who bravely passed when I was 5 & the enormous influence & love I got from the curly Italian golfing angel God sent me when I was 10."
Carson Daly silently struggled with mental health for decades
These days, Carson Daly is known for speaking candidly about mental health, but it's something he himself struggled with in silence for decades. In 2018, he opened up about battling anxiety and panic attacks for the first time in a candid talk with TODAY. "Looking back on my life, I was a worrywart kid," he shared, revealing he's been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a condition that causes you to worry constantly without control. Things became especially bad after he lost his dad at age five and by the time he was in high school, he'd developed an ulcer. Then, he landed his dream job at MTV and that's when he had his first panic attack.
At the time, Daly didn't understand what was happening. "I was terrified for no apparent reason," he explained. "You feel like you're dying." Things got so bad, he took himself to a hospital, but in the end, it was a friend who told him he had anxiety and pointed him towards a cognitive therapist. "I suffered for so long without knowing what it was," Daly told TODAY. "I couldn't enjoy life."
Now, he's got the tools he needs to manage his anxiety, but it won't ever go away. In fact, he told TODAY he keeps his hand in his pocket while shooting "The Voice" so he can pinch himself to stop from running off the stage. "It's something that I can't change about myself, in fact, it's okay, I've learned to embrace it," he admitted.
He needed 'hardcore' surgery for chronic pain
In addition to battling generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) since he's been a kid, Carson Daly has also suffered from physical pain for decades. As he revealed on TODAY in 2022, a snowmobile accident in 1997 left him with chronic lower back pain. He was on assignment for MTV in Aspen, Colorado at the time when "I was knocked unconscious." He suffered a T12 compression fracture in his vertebrae, which Cedars Sinai notes can lead to slowly worsening back pain. That was the case for Daly who said he tried every type of treatment and medication he could but nothing helped. Eventually, the pain started affecting his daily life and, worst of all, "[It] affected my interaction with my family." So in June 2022, he opted for a new, minimally-invasive procedure called Intracept. He was hopeful, but unfortunately, it didn't have the desired result.
Just months later, in September 2022, Daly went in for a second back operation. This time, he had what he called "real hardcore spine fusion surgery." "[I was] totally deteriorating physically," he told TODAY of the decision. "The zaps or electrical shocks were increasing in frequency and intensity, as I was left thigh numbness and leg pains." It was a success and after seven weeks of recovery, he posted his joy to Instagram. "Before surgery, my world was getting smaller & darker," Carson wrote. "Now, the future is bright again & I'm excited to get back to being the active dad I used to be."
Carson Daly thought he'd die at Woodstock '99
Twenty-three years after Woodstock '99 made news for all the wrong reasons, Netflix's aptly titled "Trainwreck" documentary renewed interest in the failed music festival. The three-day fest, which took place in Rome, New York, was supposed to be filled with music and peace-loving guests and aimed to be a better version of the original 1969 Woodstock. Sadly, it turned out to be filled with chaos instead. As New York Times reported in 1999, everything seemed to be going fine – until a car was set on fire on the final evening, sparking major violence. Trailers were set ablaze, merch was stolen, and several people were injured as hundreds rioted.
Carson Daly was there, hosting MTV's "TRL," and he took to Instagram to share his recollections. As it turns out, things were even worse than reported. According to Daly, over 6,000 attendees had to go to the hospital because of heat exhaustion, dehydration, and bad sanitary conditions. Three people actually died and Daly himself feared for his life. "I thought I was going to die," he wrote. At first, he was interviewing bands as usual, then the crowd got rowdy. "[We] started getting pelted with bottles, rocks, lighters, all of it." Soon, his boss was evacuating the whole team. "I remember being in a production van driving recklessly through corn fields to get to safety," he shared. "I just remember feeling like I was in another country during military conflict."
He later told TODAY, "Everything that could go wrong, went wrong."
He was rocked by the death of his friend, tWitch
Carson Daly suffered yet another loss in 2022 when he learned of the tragic death of Stephen "tWitch" Boss. The pair had worked together on-air, co-hosting NBC's New Year's Eve event in 2020, but they were also friends off-camera. Daly shared his shock and grief on TODAY, proclaiming, "I loved him." He also took the opportunity to highlight the dangers of social media, noting how most people only post a polished version of their lives while hiding the difficult parts. "This was really hard to wrap your head around," Daly shared. "I think people just have to stop assuming that when you see people on television or you see them on social media that they're OK." Instead, he encouraged viewers to talk about the good and the bad and check in on their loved ones. He concluded, "Everybody's propping up the best part of themselves, and it's taking away from real conversations happening."
Indeed, Daly himself has been open about his own struggle with mental health. In 2022, in honor of World Mental Health Day, he took to Instagram to praise Project Healthy Minds and encourage followers to speak more openly about their mental well-being. "We need to treat our mental health like we do our physical health & break the stigmas," he wrote. "Everybody's dealing with something & it's ok to not be ok."