At 66, Drew Carey Is Living His Best Life

Your show sign-off includes Barker’s signature call to action “to spay and neuter your pets,” and you’ve added a personal note: “Take care of yourself, especially your mental health. It’s so important, and I love you!” What inspired that?

That’s become a thing for me lately, because I’ve had a lot of mental health problems in my life, and have friends that have had mental health problems. And Amie [Harwick], my ex-fiancée that got murdered [February 2020] was a therapist. [Harwick’s ex-boyfriend, Gareth Pursehouse, was found guilty of her murder.] So she cared a lot about mental health. I’m finding out that there’s a lot of people that still think if you see a therapist or look for self-help books or do anything related to your own mental health, that you’re showing a weakness, and there’s something wrong with you. If you broke your arm or sprained an ankle, you would certainly go see a doctor. You wouldn’t say, “Oh, I don’t want anybody to know I wounded myself. I don’t want anybody to know something happened to me.” Nobody does that except with their mental health, and I just try to do what I can to normalize it. Why suffer?

You had an angioplasty procedure to open a clogged artery in your heart in 2001. How’s your health now?

I had a heart attack in my 40s. And if I had been in my 40s in the 1950s or the 1960s when my dad had his heart attack [and died], I would have been dead maybe. I just had a checkup with my heart doctor this week, and he’s able to take a whole 3D scan of my heart and show it to me on the screen. And you can see every pump of blood. You can see the heart valve opening and closing. So you and I and people reading this are alive in a time where there’s going to be one major health advance after the next, and we’re all going to be able to live longer and be healthier in our lives because of that.

You’ve been open about your weight-loss journey and struggle with Type 2 diabetes. Has your diet approach changed as you’ve gotten older?

I joke around that I’ve lost like 1,000 pounds really, if you add it all up. Because I lost a lot of weight [years ago], and then I was so into running and everything. And then I hurt my hip and I quit running. And then again, I had some serious depression after Amie got murdered, and I gained weight again. I was able finally to get in a good mental place to start eating well again and taking care of myself better.

And how are you feeling?

I just got back from Peru. I hiked only the one day — but I hiked the Inca Trail, which kicked my butt. At 66, to be able to do that, I was really proud of myself. I would love to do it again. That’s the kind of mindset I have. You absolutely can still exercise in your 60s and still lose weight and still be fit and still dance all night. I’m really loving life. Plus, I have a lot of internal knowledge from the life I’ve led that makes me pretty wise — a lot wiser than I was about choices I make and things that I do.

So your future is bright?

I like to think so. We’ll find out. I’m really good at appreciating each day and really enjoying my life. I really am at one of my happiest times right now. I have such loving friends. Man, I’m just so lucky. There’s no turmoil. Everything’s good. Everything’s forgivable. I don’t panic. I’m not afraid of injury or death. It’s a very peaceful, calm way to live. I’m so glad that I finally found it. I’m looking forward to more of it, and to getting even calmer and even more chill and even less worried and even healthier. I feel freer than I’ve ever been in my whole life.