--- title: Wife of Jimmy Kimmel Discusses Health Care Monologue description: After Jimmy Kimmel's newborn son underwent open heart surgery, the late night host delivered a powerful monologue calling for universal health care. canonical: https://time.com/5052238/jimmy-kimmel-wife-molly-mcnearney-son-health-care/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-06T17:42:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:49:08.045Z og:title: Jimmy Kimmel's Wife on That Watershed Health Care Monologue og:description: Molly McNearney is a producer and head writer on Jimmy Kimmel Live! og:url: https://time.com/5052238/jimmy-kimmel-wife-molly-mcnearney-son-health-care/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt551e2a16c1022900/6988f40c86f68e51216e7797/jimmy-kimmel-molly-mcnearney.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Jimmy-Kimmel-Molly-McNearney og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jimmy Kimmel's Wife on That Watershed Health Care Monologue twitter:description: Molly McNearney is a producer and head writer on Jimmy Kimmel Live! twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt551e2a16c1022900/6988f40c86f68e51216e7797/jimmy-kimmel-molly-mcnearney.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'That Was All Him, All His Heart': Jimmy Kimmel's Wife Shares Emotional Story of Health Care Monologue > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=6faccc5a-95db-4f61-999b-e4ad2b51386b&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 6, 2017 5:42 PM UTC  Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearney attend the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on February 26, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearney attend the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on February 26, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. C Flanigan/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 6, 2017 5:42 PM UTC After Jimmy Kimmel’s [newborn son, William “Billy” Kimmel, underwent open heart surgery](http://time.com/4762882/jimmy-kimmel-baby-heart-surgery/) in April, the late night host delivered a [powerful opening monologue](http://time.com/5038210/top-10-television-episodes-2017/) on _Live!_ calling for [universal health care](http://time.com/5012163/universal-health-coverage-national-scandal/). Since then, Kimmel has remained an active participant in the national health care debate and spoken out on other issues, including [gun control](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time%5Fcontinue=1&v=ruYeBXudsds). Now, Kimmel’s wife, _Live!_ producer and co-head writer Molly McNearney, has shared her perspective on the events that both led to and followed her husband’s watershed moment. In a column for [_The Hollywood Reporter_](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jimmy-kimmels-wife-head-writer-why-we-shared-babys-trauma-what-came-1063489)that was published on Wednesday, McNearney explained that, due to her maternity leave, she saw the health care episode for the first time as it aired. --- > “” --- McNearney went on to reveal that both the health care opener and Kimmel’s message on the Las Vegas shooting were written exclusively by him. “The monologues he delivered on both of those nights were so personal to him,” she said. “He had 14 writers sitting in a room ready to write, and he said, ‘I got this,’ and went into his own office and closed the door. That was all him, all his heart.” Read McNearney’s full piece on [hollywoodreporter.com](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jimmy-kimmels-wife-head-writer-why-we-shared-babys-trauma-what-came-1063489). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5052238/jimmy-kimmel-wife-molly-mcnearney-son-health-care/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5052238/jimmy-kimmel-wife-molly-mcnearney-son-health-care/"},"headline":"'That Was All Him, All His Heart': Jimmy Kimmel's Wife Shares Emotional Story of Health Care Monologue","datePublished":"2017-12-06T17:42:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:49:08.045Z","description":"Molly McNearney is a producer and head writer on Jimmy Kimmel Live!","url":"https://time.com/5052238/jimmy-kimmel-wife-molly-mcnearney-son-health-care/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","celebrities","Jimmy Kimmel","TV","jimmy kimmel live","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt551e2a16c1022900/6988f40c86f68e51216e7797/jimmy-kimmel-molly-mcnearney.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt551e2a16c1022900/6988f40c86f68e51216e7797/jimmy-kimmel-molly-mcnearney.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jimmy-Kimmel-Molly-McNearney","caption":"Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearney attend the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on February 26, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California.","creditText":"C Flanigan/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5052238/jimmy-kimmel-wife-molly-mcnearney-son-health-care/","name":"'That Was All Him, All His Heart': Jimmy Kimmel's Wife Shares Emotional Story of Health Care Monologue"}}]}] ```