UPDATE 12/10/25 at 11:29 a.m. ET — Sylvester Stallone has revealed the reason he walked with a cane at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors.
“Sly is using a cane due to back surgery,” a rep for the 79-year-old actor tells Us Weekly in a statement. “He appreciates everyone’s concern and support.”
The original story continues below:
Sylvester Stallone was photographed using a cane while attending the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C.
Walking the star-studded event’s red carpet on Sunday, December 7, the Rocky actor, 79, leaned on the walking aid and posed for photos with his wife, Jennifer Flavin Stallone, and other attendees.
Us Weekly has reached out to representatives for Sylvester for comment.
Sylvester was celebrated as one of the event’s annual honorees inside the Kennedy Center Opera House.
Sylvester Stallone Through the Years: ‘Rocky’ to ‘The Family Stallone’
The red carpet sighting comes after Sylvester said during a 2024 interview for his reality TV show, The Family Stallone, that he has “never recovered” from injuries sustained while making action films. “I did stupid stuff,” he said during a February 2024 episode of season 2. “I was directing Expendables and, like an idiot, I’m doing take 10, take whatever, and I remember one slam, and I could actually feel one bang. … I never recovered from [Expendables]. After that film, it was never physically the same.”
The actor warned others at the time, “Don’t do your own stunts.”
The episode also noted that a metal plate had been inserted into Sylvester’s neck “to repair the damage” done due to the Expendables “slam.” As a result, he underwent “spinal fusion surgery” to limit movement between his bones.
Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Flavin’s Relationship Timeline
Jennifer, 57, was also interviewed in the episode, recalling her husband’s surgery as a “scary time” for the Stallone family. “He doesn’t like people to know he’s had so many back surgeries,” she said. “It’s very scary for our family every time Sly has to go through surgery, because you never know. … No one knows. I hope this is the one to help him live a more comfortable life.”
In July, Sylvester opened up about yet another famed action hero: his late friend Hulk Hogan. Speaking to TMZ on July 25, Sylvester said Hogan, who died at the age of 71 after suffering a heart attack, was a “force to be reckoned with.”
Sylvester, who formed a friendship with Hogan while filming 1982’s Rocky III, expanded at the time, “I remember he was immense. He was probably about 315 pounds, but very smart. He had this deep, calming voice, and he was willing to do anything that would make this show better.”
Sylvester continued, “The thing was, we started to roll around and he would literally pick me up and drop me to the ground, and I thought, ‘I’m going to be literally pulp by the time I land. He would always break the fall. He would do things you wouldn’t see, like a magician. And I’ll say, I’ve had a lot of punches thrown at me. No one was more accurate and precise than him.”
During the February episode of The Family Stallone, the actor’s daughter Scarlet spoke of the pain she’s seen her father go through over the years. “It’s really hard to see my father go through yet another painful operation,” she said at the time. “My whole childhood, he was in pain. He did everything he could to push through the pain and be present, but I couldn’t imagine every waking moment you are just hurting.”
