14 DAY TRIAL // Over the weekend, word got out online that, some time last week, actor Val Kilmer had been rushed to the hospital after he started bleeding through the mouth, possible from a throat tumor he had known about for some time but refused to follow the appropriate treatment.
Some reports even claimed that there was a connection between his recent weight loss and the tumor, suggesting that his health was taking a seriously bad turn. Val Kilmer is speaking out to put all these rumors to rest: he doesn’t have cancer and he didn’t have emergency surgery because of a throat tumor.
Val Kilmer speaks out on Facebook
Several hours after news of hospitalization broke out in the press and the tabloids were already having a field day speculating on what could possibly have been wrong with him to require a trip to the ER and several days under medical observation, Kilmer took to his Facebook page to set the record straight.
He made it crystal clear: he did not have a throat tumor and he did not undergo emergency hospitalization, as several media outlets claimed, citing sources close to him.
It was true that he’d been taken to the hospital, but that was down to a “complication where the best way to receive care was to stay under the watchful eye of the ucla ICU,” he explained. He urged his fans not to worry about him, while thanking them for their support and loving messages.
In a second update on social media, his tone was a bit harsher, hinting at frustration that reports about his health were still making the rounds. No one had any reason to worry about him, he added because he was nowhere as sick as “insiders” and the publications that cited them wanted him to appear.
Val Kilmer vs. USA Today
Then, USA Today ran a piece citing Kilmer’s publicist Liz Rosenberg as saying that, despite Kilmer’s 2 Facebook posts, he did have a throat tumor and it did put him in the hospital last week.
This is when the actor really lost his cool, and in a lengthier post in which he also listed other, more important matters that the publication could write about, he also went for the jugular by saying that it should at least check facts before going to print with a story. This wasn’t journalism, he added, this was tabloid media posing as actual journalism.
However, USA Today did say that Rosenberg gave the statement to the AP, so they had no reason to doubt her or to suspect she could be speaking anything but the truth.
“I've been quiet about my health because it's my business,” the actor also said. “Even my weight has ended up demanding me to ‘respond’ because my weight loss was presented in a negative way.”
USA Today is yet to respond, but in the meantime, you can see Kilmer’s full post below.