Michael Richards secretly battled prostate cancer six years ago.

The 74-year-old actor - who has daughter Sophia from his previous marriage to Cathleen Lyons and a young son with his wife Beth Skipp - initially believed he was "ready to go" when he received the shock diagnosis in 2018 but admitted that his family served as a catalyst for him electing for life-saving surgery.

He told People: "I thought. well, this is my time. I'm ready to go. But then my son came to mind just a few seconds later and I heard myself saying, 'I've got a nine-year-old and I'd like to be around for him. Is there any way I can get a little more life going?'.

"It had to be contained quickly. I had to go for the full surgery. If I hadn't, I probably would have been dead in about eight months."

The former 'Fridays' star has been mostly out of the spotlight since the years when he was known globally for his role as Cosmo Kramer on the classic sitcom 'Seinfeld' but has now decided to put his story in a memoir titled 'Entrances and Exits' because he wanted to be able to "connect" with his memory and do a "full review" of his life as he joked he was "surprised2 at how much he actually remembered in the writing process.

He said: "I had over 40 journals I’d kept over the years and wanted to do a full review of my life. I’m turning 75, so maybe wanting to do that is something that comes with being my age. I wanted to connect with feelings and memory. I’m surprised at how much I was able to remember."