16 celebrities who have spoken about having Lyme disease

Yahoo

3 days ago

Lyme disease, a bacterial tick-borne illness, can come with a host of vague symptoms.
It can be difficult to properly diagnose, which many celebrities have spoken about.
Stars like Avril Lavigne and Justin Bieber have shared their experiences with Lyme disease.
In recent years, the medical spotlight has increasingly been shining on Lyme disease, the bacterial tick-borne illness that often comes with a host of vague, mysterious symptoms.
The widespread illness is often considered the "great imitator" because its symptoms typically mimic other health conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, and others.
Getting a proper Lyme disease diagnosis remains challenging because testing is often inconclusive, potentially leaving those affected to go weeks, months, or years without being correctly treated. Although treatments do exist, there is no cure.
Here are some celebrities who have spoken out about their experiences with Lyme disease, helping to shed light on this mysterious tick-borne illness.
Justin Timberlake shared his diagnosis shortly after wrapping up his world tour.
On Thursday, while wrapping up his world tour, the singer shared his diagnosis in an Instagram post.
"Among other things, I've been battling some health issues, and was diagnosed with Lyme disease -— which I don't say so you feel bad for me —— but to shed some light on what I've been up against behind the scenes," he wrote. "If you've experienced this disease or know someone who has — then you're aware: living with this can be relentlessly debilitating, both mentally and physically."
Timberlake was "shocked" at first, but this diagnosis helped explain some of the "crazy fatigue" and "nerve pain" he'd been feeling.
Though he debated ending his tour early, he wrote, he's glad he chose to keep going. " … I was reluctant to talk about this because I was always raised to keep something like this to yourself," he continued. "But I am trying to be more transparent about my struggles so that they aren't misinterpreted.'"
In 2020, Amy Schumer shared that she'd been diagnosed with Lyme disease.
In September 2020, Schumer shared on Instagram that she has Lyme disease and "maybe had it for years."
Seeing as this disease is the "great imitator" with a range of symptoms, it's possible she could've experienced Lyme symptoms for quite some time without realizing it.
In an Instagram post that same year, the comedian said she was taking doxycycline, an oral antibiotic, to treat the condition, and she also asked others for advice.
Justin Bieber has been open about his experiences with Lyme disease.
In January 2020, the singer wrote on Instagram that it's been a "rough couple of years" battling the disease.
Bieber explained that, for a long time, people speculated that he was "on meth," but failed to realize that he'd actually recently been diagnosed with Lyme disease.
He wrote that he'd also been struggling with "a serious case of chronic mono which affected my skin, brain function, energy, and overall health."
Avril Lavigne is now an advocate for those with the illness.
Lavigne spoke about her struggle with Lyme disease in a June 2015 interview with "Good Morning America," revealing that she'd been bedridden in October 2014.
She called that the "worst time" in her life after seeing specialists and doctors who misdiagnosed her with chronic fatigue syndrome and depression.
In October 2018, the "Complicated" singer told Billboard she felt unwell during her 2014 tour and couldn't get out of bed as her symptoms progressively got worse.
During one of her darkest days battling with side effects of the disease, Lavigne said she wrote her 2018 song "Head Above Water," telling Billboard, "I had accepted that I was dying ... And literally under my breath, I was like, 'God, help me keep my head above the water.'"
She has also started the Avril Lavigne Foundation, which aims to bring awareness to those dealing with Lyme and other serious illnesses and disabilities.
Ben Stiller said he had trouble getting an accurate diagnosis.
In 2011, Stiller told The Hollywood Reporter about his Lyme disease, saying, "I got it in Nantucket, Massachusetts, a couple of years ago. My knee became inflamed and they couldn't figure out what it was, then they found out it was Lyme."
"I'm symptom-free now, but Lyme doesn't ever leave your system. It's a really tough thing," he said.
Shania Twain has said Lyme affected her career.
Twain dominated the pop and country charts in the 1990s and early 2000s, but by 2004, she had issues with her vocal cords, which she attributed to contracting Lyme disease.
In 2017, she told Canadian news outlet CBC that she was bitten by a tick when on tour in Norfolk, Virginia. She said she saw it fall off her, and she immediately began to see troubling Lyme disease symptoms pop up.
"I was on tour, so I almost fell off the stage every night. I was very, very dizzy and didn't know what was going on. It's just one of those things you don't suspect," she added.
It took Twain years to figure out that she had dysphonia, a neurological disorder of the vocal cords in which muscles can spasm and impact speech, which she attributes to the Lyme bacteria.
She now warns others about the disease.
Lyme "is very dangerous because you have a very short window to catch it and then treat it and then even when you treat it, you could still very well be left with effects, which is what happened to me," Twain told CBC. "It's a debilitating disease and extremely dangerous. You can't play around with it, so you've got to check yourself for ticks."
Kelly Osbourne went undiagnosed for nearly a decade.
In her 2017 book "There Is No F*cking Secret: Letters From a Badass Bitch," the former reality star shared she'd unknowingly been battling Lyme disease for years.
She explained that her mom, Sharon, purchased her dad, Ozzy, a reindeer sanctuary for their home in England for his 56th birthday in 2004. She said shortly after she was bitten by a tick, which Ozzy burned off her.
For years after, she experienced "traveling pain," ranging from stomach aches to a sore throat. She said it took quite some time to finally get a Lyme diagnosis.
Osbourne wrote that she was initially afraid to speak publicly about Lyme disease because "it seems like the trendy disease to have right now, and I'm tired of seeing sad celebrities play the victim on the cover of weekly mags," but that she now acts as her own health advocate.
Ally Hilfiger wrote about her experience with the disease in a memoir.
In her book "Bite Me: How Lyme Disease Stole My Childhood, Made Me Crazy, and Almost Killed Me," Hilfiger chronicled her experience with the invisible illness and the all-too-visible symptoms that followed.
In 2016, the designer told Health magazine, "I remember getting bit by a tick and my parents sent it off to the labs. And we got inconclusive tests back."
For 10 years, she said, multiple doctors gave her a variety of diagnoses from fibromyalgia to rheumatoid arthritis. She told the magazine that finally receiving the correct diagnosis felt like she "won the lottery."
The emotional struggles is just as hard as the physical ones, according to the fashion designer.
"One of the biggest issues I think a lot of Lyme sufferers have is that some days you can have good days. And other days you can feel really feel horribly and not be able to get out of bed," she told Health. "And sometimes you start to doubt whether or not you're really feeling what your feeling, if that makes any sense. And you feel disbelieved."
In 2014, Debbie Gibson shared she'd been privately dealing with the illness.
After fans expressed their concern about her appearance in social-media photos, Gibson took to her blog in April 2014 to give an update on her health, sharing she'd begun experiencing Lyme symptoms in early 2013.
She wrote that she first felt anxiety and sensitivity to certain foods, then began feeling unique pain and muscle fatigue she'd never had before.
She added, "I got tested for everything under the sun, though it did not occur to me, or my West Coast doctors, to test for Lyme. It is typically an East Coast thing."
Gibson began losing weight and experiencing symptoms of depression, adding, "I could barely walk. I started feeling numbness and tingling in my hands and feet, which is very disconcerting for a pianist and dancer, to say the least. Night sweats, chills, fever, nerve tremors, nightmares, and migraine headaches were at a fever pitch without a minute of relief."
After a long journey to find the correct diagnosis, the "I Love You" singer was able to begin treatment.
In recent years, she's spoken about learning to manage her symptoms.
"I've learned how to overcome. I've never said I'm struggling with Lyme [disease], I say I'm overcoming Lyme," she told People in 2023. "So, I've really overcome a lot and I just remain diligent and consumed with my body and my mind and it's working."
Alec Baldwin has spoken about experiencing Lyme symptoms.
During a 2011 interview with The New York Times, the "Saturday Night Live" actor mentioned that he had chronic Lyme disease.
Baldwin didn't mention his diagnosis again until 2017 when he spoke onstage at an event benefiting the Bay Area Lyme Foundation.
According to People magazine, he told the crowd he'd been bitten by a tick 17 years prior and was bitten again a few years later.
"I got the classic Lyme disease (symptoms) for each successive summer, for five years, every August, like [these] black lung, flu-like symptoms, sweating to death in my bed," he said.
"The first time was the worst of all," he recalled. "And I really thought, 'This is it, I'm not going to live.' ... I was lying in bed saying, 'I'm going to die of Lyme disease,' in my bed.'"
He said he and his wife, Hilaria, remain vigilant about checking their dogs and children for ticks.
Jamie-Lynn Sigler said she was diagnosed with Lyme disease and multiple sclerosis within a short period.
When Sigler was 19 years old and starring on HBO's hit "The Sopranos," she learned she had Lyme disease.
Shortly after, in 2016, she told People magazine, "I was diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis) when I was 20 years old. It was a shock, it was surprising."
"I had been diagnosed with Lyme disease the year before, so to get the diagnosis was confusing, and also strange because I didn't feel sick. I didn't feel that anything was wrong."
She'd taken antibiotics, a standard course of treatment for early-stage Lyme, "and things had started to go away," she said.
Sigler now advocates on behalf of those with chronic illnesses.
Daryl Hall has spoken about Lyme disease and tick bites.
In 2005, the duo Hall and Oates canceled a tour, sharing that Hall had been diagnosed with Lyme disease.
In 2011, Hall spoke about his experiences, explaining how he contracted the disease and his journey to health.
"I got it the way everybody gets it," he said. "I've lived in the country for many, many years ... it's a hotbed of deer and other wildlife animals. I'd been bitten over the years so many times and I think it finally reached a critical mass and I crashed and burned about five years ago."
He said he experienced a wide range of ailments, from allergies and fever-like symptoms to aches, pains, and tremors. After being tested, he learned he had "six or seven tick-borne diseases."
Hall said he saw a Lyme literate doctor who helped treat him and advised individuals with constantly changing symptoms "to get tested for Lyme disease because the symptoms mimic so many other things."
Thalía Mottola began feeling ill during pregnancy in 2007.
Mottola spent most of the 1990s and early 2000s dominating the Latin music charts, but in 2007, at the end of her first pregnancy, the "No Me Acuerdo" singer began feeling unwell.
By the time she gave birth, she was unknowingly dealing with a full-blown case of Lyme disease.
In her 2011 memoir "Growing Stronger," she explained that doctors tried to convince her she was suffering from postpartum depression, writing, "I continued to feel like I had been run over by a truck that had dragged me for a thousand miles, along with a steamroller that had crushed every last bone in my body. I literally thought I was dying."
When she found the energy to research online, she started seeing Lyme specialists, eventually undergoing two years of "heavy treatments."
Kathleen Hanna dealt with Lyme disease symptoms for over a decade before being properly diagnosed.
Hanna stepped away from her band, Le Tigre, in 2005, citing personal health issues as the reason for her hiatus.
Years later, she attributed those issues to an undiagnosed case of Lyme disease.
After multiple misdiagnoses — from multiple sclerosis to lupus and panic attacks — she saw a 2008 documentary called "Under Our Skin" about the Lyme epidemic and realized that a tick bite she got in 2005 could still be causing her health problems, even though she'd been treated with a standard course of antibiotics for Lyme disease at the time.
She experienced debilitating symptoms over the course of several years that made her unable to move or speak at times, and she began to heal after two years of "intensive therapy," according to The New York Times.
Yolanda Hadid is one of the most outspoken celebrity voices spreading awareness of the disease.
Hadid was a cast member on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" in 2012, but viewers didn't know that behind the scenes, she was dealing with symptoms of chronic Lyme disease.
In the past decade, she's become known as a public advocate for those with Lyme while documenting her own debilitating neurological and physical symptoms and how she's coped with them.
In 2017, she published the memoir "Believe Me: My Battle with the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease."
"Most people still don't seem to believe that chronic Lyme disease even exists," she told Vogue in 2023. "As the saying goes: You don't truly get it until you get it."
Bella Hadid has also spoken about having Lyme disease.
In late 2015, after going public with her diagnosis, Yolanda said that her daughter, Bella Hadid, has Lyme disease, too.
On August 6, 2023, the model posted a series of photos on Instagram of her receiving shots and undergoing medical procedures alongside a long caption.
" … I am okay and you do not have to worry, and 2:I wouldn't change anything for the world. If I had to go through all of this again, to get here, to this exact moment I'm in right now, with all of you, finally healthy, I would do it all again. It made me who I am today," she wrote.
She continued, " … I have so much gratitude for and perspective on life , this 100+ days of Lyme, chronic disease , co infection treatment, almost 15 years of invisible suffering, was all worth it if I'm able to, God willing, have a lifetime of spreading love from a full cup, and being able to truly be myself … "
This story was originally published in November 2018 and most recently updated on July 31, 2025.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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