GMA’s George Stephanopoulos, Wife Ali Wentworth Test Positive for Coronavirus

Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos has tested positive for the coronavirus, approximately two weeks after his wife, actress and bestselling author Ali Wentworth, confirmed she had contracted the virus and was suffering from COVID-19.

George Stephanopoulos Gives Health Update

Stephanopoulos announced the news on GMA this morning, though appeased some fears by saying he has been completely asymptomatic and feels great. He was only tested because his wife had it.

“I’ve never had a fever, never had cough, never have shortness of breath, never had chills, none of the classic symptoms you’ve been reading about,” he said on the show. “I’m feeling great.”

Thinking back over the last couple of weeks, Stephanopoulos admitted that there was one night he went to bed with some lower back pain and thought it was from a hard workout, and several days after that, he had a diminished sense of smell—but that’s all he’s felt as far as symptoms.

The former Democratic advisor has been his wife’s caregiver since she first announced the news on her Instagram page on April 1, and though Wentworth has been self-isolating in the family’s New York-based residence since first showing symptoms, this is obviously a virus that spreads rapidly and often strikes entire families.

Wentworth Isn’t As Lucky

Unfortunately, Wentworth has experienced the brunt of the virus. On her Instagram post, she wrote that she had “never been sicker. High fever. Horrific body aches. Heavy chest. I’m quarantined from my family. This is pure misery.” GMA did update people today saying Wentworth was feeling “much, much better.”

Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a regular on GMA, joined Stephanopoulos on the show this morning to explain why some people are hit hard while others barely know they have it.

She noted that while the CDC had estimated that one in four people infected with COVID-19 shows no symptoms at all, recent data out of Iceland, which is a much smaller country and has been more aggressive in testing, show that 50 percent of people infected show no symptoms.

“It’s too early to tell why,” she said. “The virus is just about four months old, so literally, we’re learning things about the way it behaves and transmits every day.”