“Seinfeld” alum Michael Richards was spotted in a rare sighting Sunday, the first time he’s been publicly photographed in two years.
Richards, wearing eyeglasses, appeared to be solo during the outing.
The last public event he attended was the “Unfrosted” premiere back in May 2024 to support his “Seinfeld” co-star Jerry Seinfeld. The event marked his first red carpet in eight years.
The actor has remained largely out of the spotlight after he infamously unleashed a stream of racial slurs at hecklers during a 2006 comedy show at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. Richards — who’s best known for playing the eccentric Cosmo Kramer on iconic sitcom “Seinfeld” — yelled shocking slurs at two Black men in the audience before storming off the stage.
Richards revisited the incident in his 2024 memoir, “Entrances and Exits.” He recalled a person from the balcony calling out, ‘You’re not funny. We don’t think you’re very funny!,’” which he said triggered him.
Richards wrote, “Of course, looking back at all, I wish I had just agreed with him,” adding, “He went low and I went even lower. We both ended up at the bottom of the barrel.”
The comedian said he was haunted by the heckler’s comment of him not being funny.
“He laid it out so clearly, so simply, my biggest fear — not being funny,” he admitted. “Later, I’ll come to realize that all of this, everything he said, is me. His voice is my voice. This is all ME going on. My inferiority sets in. My anger erupts.”
He also shared that while his “Seinfeld” co-stars — Seinfeld, Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus — all reached out to him after the incident, he was “embarrassed” and “concerned about the mess spilling onto them.”
In May 2024, Richards revealed he secretly battled prostate cancer in 2018 and underwent surgery to remove his entire prostate.
“It had to be contained quickly,” he told People. “I had to go for the full surgery. If I hadn’t, I probably would have been dead in about eight months.”
Richards said he wanted to live longer for his young son, Ben, whom he shares with his wife, Beth Skipp.
“I thought, ‘Well, this is my time. I’m ready to go,’” he told the outlet of his initial feelings after getting diagnosed with cancer. “But then my son came to mind just a few seconds later, and I heard myself saying, ‘I’ve got a 9-year-old, and I’d like to be around for him. Is there any way I can get a little more life going?’”
The actor also has a daughter, Sophia, with his ex-wife, Cathleen Lyons.
