Former Vice President Walter Mondale was hospitalized at Rochester's Mayo Clinic on Friday after doctors discovered during a routine checkup that he had the flu.

The announcement came from former President and Nobel Laureate Jimmy Carter before a Friday afternoon speech at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Minneapolis. Carter said he'd just gotten off the phone with Mondale, who he said was in the hospital but looking forward to returning home.

"He said [to] tell everybody he's doing well," Carter told the crowd.

Mondale, formerly a U.S. senator from Minnesota, served as Carter's vice president from 1977 to 1981. He had been scheduled to introduce Carter at the forum, which is put on annually by Minneapolis' Augsburg College.

The 87-year-old Mondale underwent heart surgery at Mayo last year, days after the death of his wife, Joan Mondale.

Emma Nelson