What Really Happened to Sig Hansen From Deadliest Catch?

He's been one of the most recognizable faces on Deadliest Catch since the beginning, and while Discovery hasn't confirmed the full cast for Season 21 (premiering August 1 at 8/7c), fans are already expecting to see him grimacing through another Bering Sea storm. But what some might not realize is how close Hansen has come to not returning—permanently.

So, what really happened to Sig Hansen? Quite a bit, actually.

In March 2016, while filming, Hansen suffered what he later called a "strange" heart attack. No dramatic collapse, just a sharp pain behind his chest plate that wouldn't let up.

"I had this really sharp, sharp pain, like a knife, right behind my chest plate," he told Yahoo. "It just kept pushing, and it was making me more angry."

He initially refused to leave the boat—because of course he did—but eventually got airlifted to a hospital in Anchorage. The diagnosis: a full-blown heart attack caused by a blood clot. The clot-dissolving injection medics gave him likely saved his life.

But that wasn't the end of it.

In October 2018, he suffered another heart attack. No cameras this time, but Hansen later explained it was triggered by an allergic reaction to an antibiotic he was taking for a sinus infection.

"The nurse said I probably had less than 10 minutes," he told Entertainment Weekly. "They gave me the EpiPen and then my body went into a shock."

That close call finally convinced him to quit smoking. "I was embarrassed and ashamed of myself," he told TV Insider. "That's when I threw [the cigarettes] away."

Between health scares, Hansen also briefly threatened to leave Deadliest Catch entirely back in 2010. The reason? Legal drama between Discovery and the Hillstrands, who were being sued by the network over a failed spinoff. Hansen stood with the brothers, publicly saying:

"I want people to know the captains stand together, and me and my brothers support them 100 percent."

At the time, he said he was done with the show. One month later, he was back. No explanation, no statement, just business as usual. If he negotiated something behind closed doors, nobody's ever said.

Then there's the other stuff—the stuff that doesn't make it into the show promos.

• Hansen has been married twice.
• His daughter from his first marriage, Melissa Eckstrom, accused him of sexual abuse from the early 1990s.
• No criminal charges were filed. In 2017, a Seattle prosecutor said: "It's outside our charging standards."
• A judge allowed Melissa's civil suit to move forward in 2018. The outcome has not been made public.

His current wife, June Hansen, has been with him for over two decades. In 2019, it was revealed she'd been diagnosed with cancer. No updates since. The couple has two adopted daughters, Mandy and Nina Hansen, both of whom have appeared on the show.