{"id":363575,"date":"2026-03-25T02:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363575\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T02:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:12:09","slug":"bodybuilding-legend-reveals-he-needs-kidney-donor-as-he-opens-up-on-terrifying-health-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363575\/","title":{"rendered":"Bodybuilding legend reveals he needs kidney donor as he opens up on terrifying health battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/profile-182\/daniel-matthews.html\" class=\"author\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DANIEL MATTHEWS, US SENIOR SPORTS WRITER<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/follow?screen_name=_DanMatthews_&amp;tw_p=followbutton\" class=\"twitter-follow-author\"><\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  17:49 EDT, 24 March 2026   |  Updated:  17:54 EDT, 24 March 2026   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Legendary bodybuilder Lee Haney has issued a plea for help after learning that he needs a living kidney donor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Concern for the 66-year-old, an eight-time winner of Mr. Olympia, has swelled since his children revealed that their dad&#8217;s kidney is &#8216;failing.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">In a public call for help, Joshua and Olympia Haney said: &#8216;First time sharing this\u2014my dad needs a kidney donor. Please keep him in your prayers and share if you can.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;He is a Blessing to so many others and breathes life into all he does&#8230; there is more work to do.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The post on Monday included details from the legendary bodybuilder, who revealed that he was told more than 25 years ago that he would one day need a kidney transplant.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Through faith, proper nutrition, and exercise, I was blessed to delay it for many years,&#8217; Haney said.\u00a0&#8216;Now my kidney is failing, and I&#8217;m prayerfully hoping to find a living donor.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-8c4eeba466a688ea\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/107389235-15675959-image-m-2_1774387191521.jpg\" height=\"693\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Legendary bodybuilder Lee Haney has revealed that he needs a living kidney donor\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Legendary bodybuilder Lee Haney has revealed that he needs a living kidney donor<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-8ff0ceafddbec041\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/107389981-15675959-image-a-12_1774389123818.jpg\" height=\"794\" width=\"634\" alt=\"The 66-year-old became an eight-time winner of Mr. Olympia during his remarkable career\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">The 66-year-old became an eight-time winner of Mr. Olympia during his remarkable career<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The news sparked an outpouring of support and well-wishes. On Tuesday, however, Haney insisted he is still &#8216;alive and well&#8217; as he tried to allay fears over his health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;It\u2019s appalling to see how fast rumors can spread,&#8217; he wrote. &#8216;Yes, I am in need of a living kidney donor as communicated by my two awesome children.\u00a0Many of you have sent prayers my way, and I appreciate them deeply. My approach is to be proactive as I face this current challenge.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He added: &#8216;Thank you all for being genuinely concerned&#8230; I am still well and fully functional. I\u2019m not needed in heaven at the time.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Only Ronnie Coleman has amassed as many Mr. Olympia titles (eight) as Haney, who dominated the competition from 1984-91.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The 5ft 11in bodybuilder, a native of Spartanburg, South Carolina,\u00a0was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He earlier served as chair of\u00a0the President&#8217;s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports in Bill Clinton&#8217;s administration.<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        Bodybuilding legend reveals he needs kidney donor as he opens up on terrifying health battle<\/p>\n<p>        <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By DANIEL MATTHEWS, US SENIOR SPORTS WRITER Published: 17:49 EDT, 24 March 2026 | Updated: 17:54 EDT, 24&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[539,499,103,61,60,164125,850],"class_list":["post-363575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-dailymail","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-othersports","tag-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}