Jim Parsons reveals he and husband Todd Spiewak had COVID-19

"We thought we had colds."

Jim Parsons reveals he and husband Todd Spiewak had COVID-19
Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic/Getty Images, FILE
September 30, 2020, 11:53 AM

Jim Parsons opened up about his family's brush with COVID-19, revealing he and husband Todd Spiewak both tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

"Todd and I both had it early on," the "Big Bang Theory" star recently told Jimmy Fallon. "It was like the middle of March. ... We didn't know what it was."

At first, the two weren't too alarmed when they began developing symptoms.

"We thought we had colds," Parsons explained, then noting that something felt very different about their illnesses that let them know they didn't have a simple case of the sniffles.

"We lost our sense of smell and taste," the 47-year-old actor noted, adding that his symptoms "defied the descriptions for me."

"I didn't realize how completely taste and smell could be gone. And when you're in quarantine and there is really nothing to do but eat? That was brutal," Parsons lamented.

Jim Parsons and Todd Spiewak attend the 2019 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Sept. 15, 2019, in Los Angeles.
Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic/Getty Images, FILE

When Fallon asked if they experienced a loss of appetite, the "Boys in the Band" star attested that he did "eat everything" in sight, but quipped, "It was the definition of wasted calories."

The couple, who wed in 2017, has since recovered from the coronavirus. Parsons noted that, once they bounced back from COVID-19, they decided to get a little crazy with the hair dye.

"About six weeks in, and we had been sick, I thought, 'Screw it,'" he recalled, revealing he bleached his hair -- with the help of his husband, of course. "Todd did it. It took about six hours and it burned my scalp. But you know what? Beauty is pain."

A loss of taste and smell are commonly associated with COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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