HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL – FEBRUARY 21: Mary Lou Retton, former Olympic Gold Medalist in Women’s Gymnastics, looks on during the 2009 Tyson American Cup at the Sears Centre on February 21, 2009 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
When Mary Lou Retton finally spoke out on the “Today” show last week about being hospitalized for a month with a rare and potentially deadly form of pneumonia, she wasn’t really pressed to answer certain pertinent questions, reports show.
Notably, co-host Hoda Kotb didn’t push Retton to adequately explain why she, a decorated Olympic gymnast who must have earned millions in endorsement deals over the years, didn’t have health insurance when she was hospitalized. Meanwhile, reports also say that Retton and her daughters have not responded to reporters’ questions about her income, which Texas hospital treated her and what happened to the $459,000 in online donations that she and her family received in donations, ostensibly to cover her potentially massive medical bills.
During Retton’s appearance Monday on the “Today” show, Kotb seemed eager to tell a dramatic but uplifting narrative about the Olympic star surviving a terrifying medical crisis. So, Kotb lent a sympathetic ear as the woman once dubbed “America’s sweetheart” described her hospital ordeal. Wearing an oxygen tube, Retton detailed the moment in the intensive care unit when “they…
