America’s got talent presenter and ex husband of singer Mariah Carey, announced in 2012 that he had lupus nephritis.

“It’s a form of lupus that’s just attacking my kidneys,” Cannon told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “They thought it was just kidney disease, and then they were trying to figure out why my immune system was attacking my kidneys, and that was sort of the root of it all.”

He first became aware of his condition when he was hospitalized in January 2012 whilst on vacation in Aspen with his wife and their twins. He was diagnosed with kidney failure and later developed blood clots in his lungs, another complication of the disease. “A lot of people have passed away from that. The doctor said it was lucky I was in such great shape.”