- Lifestyle
Rapper, who retired his moniker Childish Gambino, was forced to cancel remainder of his tour last October due to health issues
Inga Parkelin New YorkSunday 23 November 2025 18:08 GMTComments
CloseDonald Glover Is Retiring His Childish Gambino Alter Ego
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Email*SIGN UPI would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice
Rapper and actor Donald Glover has disclosed that shortly after he suffered a stroke while on his The New World tour last year, doctors found a hole in his heart.
Glover, 42, who has since retired his Childish Gambino moniker, was forced to cancel the remainder of his tour in October 2024 due to “health issues.” He initially postponed it, but later revealed that he needed to seriously “confront my path to recovery.”
During his headline performance at Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw music festival in Los Angeles on Sunday, the Grammy-winning “This is America” artist opened up about the “ailment” he faced last year.
“I had a really bad pain in my head in Louisiana and I did the show anyway,” Glover told the crowd in a clip of his concert streamed on Amazon Music.
“I couldn’t really see well, so when we went to Houston, I went to the hospital and the doctor was like, ‘You had a stroke,’” he recalled.
open image in galleryDonald Glover was forced to cancel his North American tour last October after suffering a series of health issues (Getty Images)
open image in galleryRapper, who previously released music under Childish Gambino, said doctors found a hole in his heart after he suffered a stroke (2017 Invision)“The first thing I thought was like, ‘Oh, here I am still copying Jamie Foxx,’” he quipped, referring to the Django Unchained actor’s near-death experience in 2023.
“That’s really like the second thing. The first thing was like, ‘I’m letting everybody down,’” Glover continued.
But the ailments didn’t stop there. He said shortly after the scary stroke discovery, he broke his foot, which led to the doctors finding a “hole in my heart.”
“So I had this surgery, and then I had to have another surgery,” he shared. “They say everybody has two lives, and the second life starts when you realize you have one. You should be living your life how you want. If we have to do this again, it can only get better.”
Glover was only about a month into his The New World tour, which was in support of his final albums, Atavista and Bando Stone in the New World, released under his Childish Gambino persona.
He was originally expected to make stops in several other major North American cities before heading to Europe, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
“After my show in New Orleans, I went to the hospital in Houston to make sure of an ailment that had become apparent,” Glover wrote on X at the time. “After being assessed, it became clear i would not perform that night, and after more tests, i could not perform the rest of the US tour in the time asked. As of now I have surgery scheduled and need time out to heal.
“My path to recovery is something I need to confront seriously,” he added. “With that said, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the North American tour and the UK and European dates.”
More about
Donald GloverChildish GambinoTyler the CreatorJoin our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments
