Jimmy Kimmel‘s heart is full.

Nearly one year after his and wife Molly McNearney‘s son Billy Kimmel underwent his third open heart surgery, the late night talk show host exclusively shared with E! News that the 7-year-old is “in perfect health”.

“Billy is about to turn 8,” Jimmy Kimmel raved at Keep Memory Alive’s Power of Love Gala in Las Vegas Feb. 22. “He’s doing great. He’s very healthy.”

And that’s why the 57-year-old said it “means a lot” to be honored at the star-studded fundraiser, which benefits Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in his home state of Nevada. (For more from his interview, tune into E! News tonight, Feb. 24, at 11 p.m.)

Having previously received an outpouring of support from the health community during his son’s medical ordeal, Jimmy Kimmel — who also shares 10-year-old daughter Jane Kimmel with Molly, as well as kids Katie Kimmel, 33, and Kevin Kimmel, 31, with ex-wife Gina Maddy — thought it was only right to pass on the love to another cause.

“It’s very special when people say, ‘Oh, we’re praying for your son,'” Jimmy Kimmel explained. “People throw those words around lightly, but when you hear them about yourself, they’re very meaningful.”

Emphasizing the importance of supporting others, he added, “It is really helpful to know that you can go to a place where they are on the cutting edge of figuring this stuff out, hopefully curing these terrible brain-related diseases and conditions that that people have.”

Jimmy Kimmel is recalling partying with Taylor Swift and her boyfriend Travis Kelce at a party packed with A-Listers.

The comedian’s son was diagnosed with a rare congenital heart defect three hours after his birth in 2017. His condition required immediate surgery, leading the then-newborn to undergo what would be his first operation.

“It was the longest three hours of my life,” Jimmy Kimmel recounted during a May 2017 episode of his eponymous talk show. “They didn’t do everything. He’ll have to have another open heart surgery in three to six months.”

Billy Kimmel went through his second surgery that December. In May 2023, he underwent his third operation to have a new valve put in his heart.

“Walking around this hospital,” Jimmy Kimmel wrote on Instagram last year, “meeting parents at their most vulnerable, children in pain and the miracle workers who do everything in their considerable power to save them is a humbling experience.”

He added, “Thanks to those loving strangers who took time to pray for and send positive energy to our baby.”