Carson Daly’s Been So Sick He Missed His ‘Entire Family Vacation’: What Happened

Carson Daly is hoping 2026 starts off better than 2025 ended.

After New York’s Department of Health announced on December 29 that the state had just experienced the highest number of flu cases ever recorded in a single week, Daly — host of “The Voice” and co-anchor on “The Today Show” — revealed he was among the thousands who fell ill and that the “nasty flu” caused him to miss his year-end family vacation.

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Carson Daly Says ‘Things Got Odd’ While He Was Sick

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In his Instagram Stories on December 30, Daly posted a photo from the movie “Cast Away,” with Tom Hanks stranded on an island, looking at his only companion — an old volleyball he named Wilson.

Daly captioned the photo, “When you missed the entire family vacation & was home alone with a nasty Flu. Things got odd 😷🤒”

Presumably, that means Daly wasn’t able to travel with his wife, Siri, and their four kids — Etta, London, Goldie and Jackson — for a holiday getaway.

Daly wasn’t alone; NBC New York reported on December 29 that the state recorded more than 71,000 cases of the flu between December 14 to 20, and that hospital beds were filling up quickly.

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Carson Daly Also Gave a Mental Health Update to Fans

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Hours after his post about having the flu, Daly also addressed his mental health in a separate Instagram Story, writing, “Anxiety told me tens of thousands of scary stories in 2025. Not one of them came true. Don’t fall for it. Keep being you.”

Daly has become an outspoken advocate for mental health awareness and programs after opening up about his own challenging journey with an anxiety disorder.

In May, Daly shared some of his journey on “The Bubba Show” on Pittsburgh radio station 100.7 Star’s morning show, revealing that his diagnosis came as a huge relief.

“It was really the best day of my life to know that all the sort of crazy thoughts that I had had (were explainable),” he told hosts Bubba and Melanie Taylor. “I thought I was losing my mind or like my brain was broken. I was so happy to learn that it was a normal thing and (there) was a name to it.”

Daly first revealed his General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and mild panic disorder diagnoses on the “Today Show” in 2018. He admitted at the time that for years, he’d suffered panic attacks on live television, from MTV’s “TRL” to “The Voice.”