Jeopardy! star Alex Trebek set out how he wanted to be remembered in final days

Alex Trebek had set out how he wanted to be remembered in a memoir that was published just months before he passed away.

The 80-year-old host of Jeopardy! died on Sunday after battling stage four pancreatic cancer for the past year.

He set out what he hoped would be his legacy in his memoir, The Answer Is… Reflections On My Life, which was released in July and he stated that he hoped to be thought as a “loving husband and father.”

As the story of his life came to a close in the pages of the book, Alex wrote poignantly: “My life has been a quest for knowledge and understanding, and I’m nowhere near having achieved that. And it doesn’t bother me in the least.

“I will die without having come up with the answer to many things in life.”

The veteran TV host added: “I’m often asked how I would like to be remembered.

“I don’t think about it much… But I suppose if I had to answer I would say I’d like to be remembered first of all as a good and loving husband and father, and also as a decent man who did his best to help people perform at their best.”

The coronavirus pandemic meant that Alex spent his final days with his family at home, but this was something he enjoyed despite opportunities being cut short.

He added in his memoir: “There aren’t that many things available for us to do.

“Here I am wanting to enjoy what might be the last of my days, and, what, I’m supposed to just stay at home and sit in a chair and stare into space?”

He continued: “Actually, that doesn’t sound too bad.

“Yep, I’ll be perfectly content if that’s how my story ends: sitting on the swing with the woman I love, my soul mate, and our two wonderful children nearby.

“I’ll sit there for a while and then maybe the four of us will go for a walk, each day trying to walk a little farther than the last.

“We’ll take things one step at a time, one day at a time.”

Alex shared two children with is wife Jean – son Matthew, 29, and daughter Emily, 27.

He also has an older daughter Nicky, 53, from a previous marriage.

Alex opened up about how his wife Jean had been his rock through his cancer battle and said: “She’s kept me alive.”

He had been with her for 30 years and in 2018, Alex told People he was “pretty satisfied with my life” and though he wished he had more time with Jean, he surmised: “But hey, 29 years is pretty good!”

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