Did Tom Hanks ever discuss his type 2 diabetes on David Letterman or in a podcast?
Executive summary
Tom Hanks publicly disclosed that he has type 2 diabetes during an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman in October 2013, and multiple news outlets and medical commentators reported and analyzed that disclosure at the time [1] [2] [3]. Later interviews and features also record Hanks discussing how he manages the condition—reporting that he addressed causes, diet and lifestyle in subsequent interviews and at least one podcast appearance, according to contemporary coverage [4] [5] [3].
1. The Letterman moment: how and when he announced it
Tom Hanks announced his diagnosis on The Late Show with David Letterman in October 2013, telling Letterman that his doctor had told him he’d “graduated” from high blood sugar to type 2 diabetes after years of elevated readings; national outlets including CNN, ABC and Today covered the exchange and quoted his line about having “type 2 diabetes, young man” and calling the condition “controllable” [1] [6] [2]. Vanity Fair, The Guardian and medical commentary later summarized the same show and emphasized that Hanks said he’d been dealing with high blood sugar for decades before the formal diagnosis [3] [7] [8].
2. What he said on Letterman about causes and control
On Letterman Hanks framed the diagnosis in the context of long-standing high blood sugar and weight fluctuations tied to his film roles; he relayed his doctor’s suggestion that reaching a much lower, teen-era weight might reverse the condition while also joking about the impracticality of that goal—remarks widely quoted by outlets reporting the interview [1] [2] [7]. Medical commentators used the disclosure to discuss links between dramatic weight change and diabetes risk, reflecting the way Hanks’ public remark invited both human detail and broader health framing [3] [8].
3. Subsequent interviews and podcasts: did he expand on it?
Reporting indicates Hanks discussed managing his type 2 diabetes beyond the Letterman interview: Times of India and Today note follow-up interviews and a 2018 podcast where Hanks spoke about lifestyle adjustments, diet control and regret over past habits—quotes that show he revisited the topic in media appearances after 2013 [4] [5]. Vanity Fair’s coverage references a lengthy podcast chat in which he went into more detail about health and lifestyle, and Healthline’s summary likewise points readers to his post‑Letterman public comments [3] [9].
4. Evidence strength and reporting limits
Multiple primary news outlets contemporaneously recorded the Letterman disclosure, so the claim that Hanks told Letterman about his diagnosis is well documented [1] [2] [6]. Reporting that he discussed the condition on podcasts and in later interviews is consistent across several profiles and lifestyle pieces, but the provided sources do not include full podcast transcripts or a definitive list of dates and episode titles within this dataset, so precise episode-level verification (for example exact podcast name and air date) is limited by the supplied reporting [4] [3] [5].
5. Balanced synthesis and what remains uncertain
In sum: yes—Tom Hanks publicly revealed he has type 2 diabetes on David Letterman in 2013, and outlets report he later spoke about managing the disease in interviews and at least one podcast appearance where he discussed causes and lifestyle changes [1] [2] [4]. The reportage uniformly treats the Letterman moment as the initial public reveal and credits Hanks with ongoing candid commentary about management, but the exact transcripts or a single authoritative podcast record are not included among the supplied sources, so finer-grained verification of every subsequent podcast remark requires looking up the original podcast episode or full transcripts [3] [5].