Christopher Rich is ‘really good,’ reuniting with ‘Reba’ co-stars 7 years after a stroke

On the eve of his return to TV, “Reba” star Christopher Rich is getting vulnerable about the health issues that kept him from acting in recent years.

Rich, 71, reunites with “Reba” co-stars Melissa Peterman and Reba McEntire on Friday’s episode of “Happy’s Place.” He told Us Weekly in an interview published Wednesday that he’s feeling “really good” several years after experiencing a stroke and subsequent blood clots, which left him with limited mobility and a long road to recovery in their wake.

“After my stroke and having a brain injury, it is like I got hit with an atomic bomb. So it all gets traumatized, and it is a hard reset,” he told the outlet. “After I finally got out of the hospital, I was moving around again.”

He landed back in the hospital due to blood clots in his lungs and “debris in my heart.” But “after surviving all of that crap, I’m feeling really, really good,” he said. In his guest spot on “Happy’s Place,” Rich – who played Reba Hart’s ex-husband Brock during the show’s airing from 2001 to 2007 – takes on the role of a tattoo artist named Maverick who is also recovering from a stroke.

“It’s great to be able to be a disabled person and play a disabled person,” Rich said. “I’m hoping that when some of this gets out there, that people that I’ve worked with in the past are going to say, ‘OK, let’s bring him back. We can work with him.’”

Being back on set reminded Rich of how much he loves acting.

“The crew made it feel like the old Reba set because we were having a blast. They had as much fun as I did and that was really heartwarming for me. It felt like I was back home in a safe place,” he said. “I was really well taken care of. It was a blessing. I want to go back so badly.”

‘I don’t think I’ll ever be exactly what I was before’

Rich appeared in 2018’s “The Christmas Trap” and spent some time away from acting, making his return in the 2021 streaming film “Spiked.” Since his stroke, Rich has kept busy with philanthropy and work in “green energy.”

In promotional videos for medical clinics where he received treatment, Rich previously described undergoing stem cell treatments to “help heal the right side of my brain where the blood clot happened because it destroyed some of my brain.”

“My left side was completely frozen; I couldn’t walk or use my left arm,” he said in a clip for ReGen Clinics.

The stroke happened in the middle of the night on Easter morning in 2018, he said in a video series for the Centre for Neuro Skills.

Afterward, his voice sounded “abnormal,” he had saliva leaking from the left side of his mouth and he struggled with his memory.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be exactly what I was before, and I hope not, because this has been such a learning experience for me,” Rich said.