The “Pose” star broke down in tears while recalling the life-threatening ordeal, which culminated in emergency surgery.

Billy Porter says he was ‘dead for three days’ amid brutal sepsis battle: ‘They had to cut me open’

The "Pose" star broke down in tears while recalling the life-threatening ordeal, which culminated in emergency surgery.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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March 5, 2026 5:17 p.m. ET

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Billy Porter attends the 2026 Recording Academy Honors presented by The Black Music Collective during the 68th Grammy Awards. Credit:

Leon Bennett/Getty

Billy Porter is opening up about his life-threatening brush with sepsis, which was even more harrowing than he previously indicated.

Fans first became aware that the *Pose *star's health had taken a turn for the worse when he pulled out of Rebecca Frecknall's production of *Cabaret *a mere weeks before its closing date on Broadway in September. He cited a "serious case of sepsis" at the time, and in December, shared a lengthier update about the "challenging four months" that followed.

On Tuesday, Porter appeared on TS Madison's *Outlaws *podcast, revealing shocking new details about the ordeal, including the infection putting him in a coma that left him "dead for three days."

Billy Porter in Cabaret.

Porter explained that he first contracted a urinary infection during his run as *Cabaret*'s emcee on the West End in London, which lasted from Jan. to May 2025. Because "the medicine in the U.K. is trash," Porter said, that infection progressed from his urinary tract to his kidneys, but finally went away.

Then he entered rehearsals for the Broadway production of the Weimar-era fantasia at the August Wilson Theatre, and "the kidney stone pain [came] back."

"By Tuesday, I checked myself into the hospital because I'm in so much pain," Porter recalled, having to stop as he got choked up with tears. "They saw that the kidney stone was trapped in my urethra... put a stint in, redirected the urine, [and] blasted me with real antibiotics."

That should have done the trick, but the worst was still to come.

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"When they got in there, there was so much pus, and bile, and infection behind the stone. It bubbled up, and I went uroseptic in minutes," he recalled, adding that he was then hooked up to life support.

"I was dead for three days. I am a miracle. I'm a walking miracle," he shared.

Still, Porter's ordeal wasn't through. "When I woke up, they told me my leg had gone into compartment syndrome, which is when the muscles close in on themselves and cut off the oxygen. So they had to cut me open on either side of my leg while I was in a coma, and from my knee to my hip, leave it open for two days so they could save my leg."

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Porter said he is now doing completely fine, and "so grateful to be here."

Broadway's *Cabaret *revival ended about a month earlier than originally planned after Porter pulled out. The West End production, however, where Porter made his debut as the emcee, is currently still running at the Kit Kat Club.

The Broadway revival was nominated for nine Tony awards in 2024, including Best Actor in a Musical for Eddie Redmayne, whose role Porter eventually took over. Porter can next be seen on the big screen in *The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping*.

You can watch Porter's full appearance on the *Outlaws *podcast above.

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