Hollywood legend Billy Porter has opened up about his gruelling battle with sepsis, which left him “dead for three days”. The Tony and Emmy winner made a recent appearance on TS Madison’s Outlaws podcast, where he revealed that he got a serious infection back in September 2025, which ended up in a coma. The Pose star, 56, was forced to withdraw from Cabaret, meaning the Broadway show had to cut a series of performances due to his health challenges.

At the time, the production company simply explained that the musician needed time to recover from a “serious case of sepsis”. Now, he has detailed his months-long health struggles, which began after contracting a urinary infection during Cabaret’s run at the London West End from January to May.

He told listeners: “The medicine in the UK is trash. Four rounds of antibiotics and 10 to 12 weeks later, it’s a kidney infection with kidney stones. Fast forward, and they finally gave me medicine. It seems to go away.”

But when he returned to the US and began rehearsals for the Broadway production of Cabaret, “the kidney stone pain [came] back.” The actor struggled to hold back tears as he recalled: “By Tuesday, I checked myself into the hospital because I’m in so much pain.

“They went in to do a routine check. They saw that the kidney stone was trapped in my urethra... put a stent in, redirected the urine, [and] blasted me with real antibiotics. Not that weak s**t. Then go in through my penis and blow up the kidney stones.”

Porter had hoped that his condition would improve after these extensive measures, but things only got worse from here. He continued: “When they got in there, there was so much pus, and bile, and infection behind the stone.

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“It bubbled up, and I went uroseptic in minutes,” revealing that he was quickly hooked up to a life support system. “I was dead for three days. I am a miracle. I’m a walking miracle.”

After coming out of the coma, doctors warned him that the recovery would be difficult. The actor explained: “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.” He added that he is so thankful to be doing much better now, gushing: “I am so grateful to be here. It is such a gift.”

In December, he updated fans on Instagram that he's "on the road to a full recovery" following a "very challenging four months." Urosepsis is a serious type of sepsis, whch the NHS describes as a condition where the body responds improperly to an infection. Urosepsis is a severe complication of a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) where the infection spreads into the bloodstream.