Stephen Colbert Diagnosed With Benign Positional Vertigo

Stephen Colbert is battling benign positional vertigo.

The 56-year-old late night talk show host has revealed he was diagnosed with the condition — which causes episodes of dizziness when a person shifts their head, and can lead to falls — in late October, on the weekend before the 2020 US Presidential Election, which took place on November 3.

Speaking to Vanity Fair for their December cover story, Stephen said: “It’s almost entertaining, until I forget. And then I go to stand up, and then I just fall down.”

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert host has now been told by doctors to keep his body at a tilt to prevent him from feeling dizzy.

He added: “I’m coming to you right now from a very weird angle, slightly listing to port.”

The diagnosis comes after Stephen has already been battling deafness in one ear, which he developed after having “this weird tumour as a kid”, which he needed to have an operation to remove.

Stephen’s procedure left him without an eardrum in his right ear, and dashed his childhood dream of having a career in marine biology.

Speaking back in 2005, he said: "I always wanted to be a marine biologist ... but then I had this ear problem. I have no ear drum. So I had this operation at the Medical University [of South Carolina] when I was a kid. Now I can't get my head wet. I mean, I can, but I can't really scuba dive or anything like that. So that killed my marine biology hopes.”

According to doctors, positional vertigo often goes away on its own after a few weeks or months, or it can be helped along with repositioning movements where a patient tilts and holds their head in certain positions to move particles around the ear canal.

Front and centre: Stephen Colbert on the cover of Dec 2020 issue of Vanity Fair.

— BANG

Photo: TPG News/Click Photos