Henrik Lundqvist Recalls ‘Tough’ Decision to Retire After Heart Diagnosis: 'It Was a Lot of Unknowns' (Exclusive)

• Hockey Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist was forced to retire from the NHL in 2021 after being diagnosed with recurrent pericarditis
• Recurrent pericarditis is an autoinflammatory disease that affects about 40,000 people in the US each year.
• Lundqvist is spreading awareness of recurrent pericarditis through a new partnership with Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, sharing her story in hopes of helping others better recognize the symptoms

Three years after his shocking retirement from hockey, Hockey Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist has a new routine.

“I used to have hockey season dictate my schedule,” Lundqvist, 42, tells PEOPLE. “Now he drives my daughters to school.”

The retired New York Rangers goaltender recently caught up with PEOPLE in New York City, where he has been living since moving from Sweden to the United States to join the NHL.

In New York, Lundqvist etched his legacy in hockey history as one of the best goaltenders to ever play the game, earning five NHL All-Star selections and winning the 2012 Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender. He was named the Rangers’ team MVP in nine of his 15 years with the team and helped lead them to the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals, earning him legendary status among New York sports fans who crowned him “King Henry” after years of dominance performs on ice.

But Lundqvist’s career came to an abrupt end midway through the 2020 season, shortly after he signed his first free agent contract to join the Washington Capitals. Lundqvist began having chest pains and doctors discovered he had an irregular heartbeat, requiring open-heart surgery.

NHL legend Henrik Lundqvist, 39, retires due to heart problems: ‘It’s time to go’

Henrik Lundqvist.

Jim McIsaac/Getty

Six months after the surgery, Lundqvist continued to experience pain, discomfort and fatigue, and realized something more was going on. He was later diagnosed with recurrent pericarditis, a painful and debilitating chronic auto-inflammatory disease that affects 40,000 people in the US each year.

Lundqvist is teaming up with Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals to spread awareness about RP, and he spoke with PEOPLE ahead of the launch of the “Life DisRPted” campaign with Kiniksa.

The idea of ​​telling others his story offered the longtime NHL goaltender a chance to help others recognize if they have a chronic illness, perhaps saving them the physical and mental discomfort of sorting through symptoms.

“That was a tough part for me early on, when I was diagnosed, I was just weeks away from returning to the NHL after open heart surgery and to come back and then get this diagnosis, it was a lot of unknowns,” he says Lundqvist. “I didn’t know how long the recovery would take or my path forward.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date with the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The disease, which causes sharp chest pain that worsens when you lie down or breathe in and can cause a dry cough, difficulty breathing, palpitations and fever, is often misdiagnosed at first. When Lundqvist first started experiencing similar symptoms, he was sure it was a complication of recent open-heart surgery.

“I didn’t know what it was,” he says. “I thought it was related to my surgery. I had severe pains in my chest, back, I was sick, I was tired all the time.”

However, the surgery was likely just the trigger that allowed the auto-inflammatory disease to flare up in Lundqvist’s body, Dr. Antonio Abbate, lead specialist in recurrent pericarditis at UVA Health, tells PEOPLE.

“The initial injury causes inflammation and it just continues and becomes a vicious cycle,” explains Dr. Abbate. “It doesn’t go away unless you treat it with targeted therapies.”

Ryan Reynolds kissed New York Rangers legend Henrik Lundqvist on the cheek

Henrik Lundqvist with daughters Charlise and Juli Lundqvist.

Bruce Bennett/Getty

Lundqvist says he’s had about four to five flare-ups since he first managed to get the disease under control and received an official diagnosis in 2021. “That’s the tricky part about RP, you don’t know exactly when it’s going to hit you,” Lundqvist says. “You don’t know if you’re overexerting yourself when you’re exercising, but you know the symptoms when it happens. I feel really good right now. After a few weeks of recovery from my last setback, I was back to normal. And I think the key for me was setting the right expectations early on and understanding what that actually is and what that means in terms of the activity that I can do.” The hardest realization for the 20-year-old hockey veteran was that it was no longer safe for him to play professionally.

“At the time, I wasn’t sure if it was the right decision,” he says. “I just knew it was going to be very challenging to try to come back and I wanted to. But looking back now, I know 100% that it was the right decision because of how things have gone over the last few years.”

Henrik Lundqvist Reflects – And Looks To The Future – As Rangers Retired Jersey: ‘Extremely Grateful’

Henrik Lundqvist.

Bruce Bennett/Getty

Lundqvist misses playing hockey. “Absolutely,” he says. “But also, when you retire, a lot of good things come from having more time for other things.”

There were many other things that kept him busy off the ice. Lundqvist enjoys the fact that he can spend more time with his wife Therese Andersson and their daughters — Charlise, 12, and Juli, 9 — who return to Sweden every summer. The retired NHL star also landed a studio analyst job for TNT in 2021, as well as a television anchor for his former team, the New York Rangers, on the MSG Network. But the retired Ranger immediately dismisses the possibility of ever becoming an NHL coach: “That’s a big no,” he laughs. “When you retire, you’re suddenly in charge of your own time,” says Lundqvist, who now fills his athletic itch with casual games of tennis. “Ever since I was 16, hockey dictated my schedule, but now I feel like I’m in charge. I can decide what to do, when to do it and prioritize my family and friends. That’s something I don’t want to give up.”

Despite not being able to retire on his own terms, Lundqvist has come to terms with how his award-winning career has come to an end. “In my opinion, my life is perfect,” says Lundqvist, three years after his RP diagnosis called his physical lifestyle into question. “It really is. I’m still active, I have my family and I’m doing a lot of good things.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education