Thomas Gottschalk congratulated Günther Jauch on his 70th birthday on Sunday, breaking a pact the two German television veterans had made to speak about each other only at one another's open grave. Gottschalk joked that Mick Jagger has more wrinkles than both of them combined, dismissing any sense of solemnity around the milestone.
The pair first met in the 1980s at Bayerischer Rundfunk and co-hosted the B3 radio show from 1985 to 1989. Gottschalk's public message follows his November 2025 disclosure of a serious cancer diagnosis and December departure from television to focus on recovery.
Jauch's own employer declined to schedule a special birthday broadcast, with RTL saying the occasion would not be featured in regular programming. The network plans a 25th-anniversary rerun of 'Wer wird Millionär?' on 3 August instead. Jauch said he would not answer his phone on the day.