Does Jay Cutler Have Diabetes? What He’s Said About His Health on and off the NFL Field

Although former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler retired from the league during his run with Miami Dolphins in 2017, he managed to keep himself in the news for other reasons. In 2020, he made headlines when his ex-wife, Kristin Cavallari, filed for divorce after seven years of marriage and three children. Jay also caught unwanted public attention when bodycam footage of his October 2024 DUI arrest in Tennessee surfaced in October 2025.

Another part of the athlete's personal life that has come up. One of the topics that has been discussed is Jay's health, namely whether or not he lives with diabetes.

Here's what the football pro has said about the disease.

Yes, Jay has been open about living with Type 1 diabetes throughout his career. According to an interview with the NFL, he was diagnosed with diabetes in 2008 while playing for the Denver Broncos. He explained that he noticed he was suffering some of the autoimmune disease's symptoms, including a 35-lb weight loss and exhaustion.

"I had no energy," Jay explained to the outlet. "We thought it might be stress and the grind of going through a whole season. But once I got back here and started working out again, I just wasn't making any improvement. I wasn't getting any stronger. I was still losing weight."

The football phenom said he was officially diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes at the age of 25. According to Mayo Clinic, weakness and unexplained weight loss are among the early symptoms of Type 1 diabetes. While many patients are diagnosed with the condition as children, there are many people like Jay who were diagnosed as adults. The athlete admitted that while getting the Type 1 diabetes diagnosis later in life was daunting, he said it only took him a few days to accept his diagnosis and focus on maintaining his health.

"It's a little overwhelming to get that news and realize you're going to have to completely change your life," Jay admitted. "It's not something that's going to go away. It's something I'm going to have to deal with my entire life and you've got to come to grips with that."

Soon after accepting that he would always live with diabetes, Jay began inspiring others living with Type 1 diabetes not to give up on their dreams. He has also shared how his diagnosis affected his professional career, including the decisions he made on and off the field. During a 2012 episode of his ESPN show, The Jay Cutler Show, Jay credited making changes to his diet and educating himself on the disease as helping him take better care of himself as he's gotten older.

"It's something you go to sleep with and you wake up with everyday," he said on the show. "It's not something that you can just be like 'Hey, I'm going to take a day off here and I'll catch back up with it tomorrow.' It's difficult to deal with. I think more than anything over the past three, four, five years is I've changed my diet a lot. I think that's made the biggest impact on me being able to control my numbers and being able to control diabetes."

"When I first got it I was (24), I just kind of ate whatever I wanted, did whatever I wanted, lived however I wanted," Jay added. "As I get older and maybe a little bit wiser you realize how much stuff affects your body and what it can do. Cutting out carbs and sweets and trying to eat just proteins and fruits and stuff like that more natural stuff is what I have found has had the biggest impact on me."

Over time, Jay has continued caring for his health to be there for his three kids: Saylor, Camden, and Jaxon. According to T1D Living, the athlete decided to give back to his diabetes community by launching the Jay Cutler Scholarship, a $5,000 scholarship for incoming college athletes living with Type 1 Diabetes.