We may tend to think celebrities lead charmed lives, but they've got a lot weighing on their shoulders. It's a pretty exclusive club filled with scrutiny and judgment, and some celebs are carrying more weight than others — and it's not because of the entertainment industry. Instead, these celebs are facing medical conditions few other people in the world know what it's like to experience.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00Celebrities already live in an exclusive club, but some are more unique than others,
00:06not because of their class status, but rather the extremely rare medical conditions they live with.
00:12Some of these conditions are misunderstood, so it's worth discussing them.
00:16These are the celebs who have rare medical conditions.
00:20Billie Eilish has used her platform to raise awareness of synesthesia,
00:24a condition in which people have unusual sensory experiences,
00:28like hearing colors, feeling sounds, and tasting shapes.
00:32The Grammy-winning artist discussed her synesthesia during an August 2021
00:37appearance on The Tonight Show, as she told host Jimmy Fallon that she perceives him as
00:42a vertical brown rectangle. Interestingly enough, the condition runs in Eilish's family,
00:48as her brother and dad also both have it.
00:51It's a thing in your brain where you associate random stuff to everything."
00:57Eilish explained that, for her, every day of the week has a color, a number,
01:02and a shape to it, and she also noted that the condition is central to her creative process.
01:07As she put it,
01:08"[It inspires a bunch of stuff, so like all of my videos for the most part
01:13have to do with synesthesia, all of my artwork, everything I do live."
01:17That inspiration was clear in 2019 when the singer unveiled the Billie Eilish Experience,
01:23a museum exhibit designed across 14 rooms, curated by Eilish herself to showcase
01:29the sights, smells, and sensations of her album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
01:35Best known for his role as precocious youngest child Brick Heck on the ABC sitcom The Middle,
01:40Atticus Schaefer lives with osteogenesis imperfecta. Also known as brittle bone disease,
01:46the National Organization for Rare Disorders classifies osteogenesis imperfecta as,
01:52"...a rare disease affecting the connective tissue that is characterized by extremely
01:57fragile bones that break or fracture easily."
02:00In a 2011 interview with Parade magazine, Schaefer noted that he wants to encourage
02:05people to embrace their differences. As he put it,
02:08"...my message to people with or without a condition is the fact that you can still
02:13do anything you set your mind to. You just have to do it in a slightly different way than other
02:18people."
02:18He also discussed his condition in a 2015 TV Guide interview,
02:23emphasizing that he doesn't want to be defined by it. As he noted,
02:27"...my condition is just a small part of me, and it's the same as hair color, eye color,
02:32whatever. That was what my mom instilled in me ever since I was a baby. Be yourself,
02:37you are exactly the way you're supposed to be. You just have something that makes you unique,
02:42different."
02:43The ABC family drama Switched at Birth has been lauded as a paragon of deaf representation.
02:49Like the character she played on the show, Katie LeClerc has Meniere's disease,
02:53an inner ear condition that affects approximately 0.2 percent of the American population.
02:59In a 2014 interview with Women's Health, LeClerc explained,
03:03"...my ears are full probably 60 percent of the time, where you feel like you have to pop them.
03:08There's lots of pressure. Probably 60 percent of the time I get a severe head rush,
03:14like when you stand up too quickly."
03:16Meniere's is closely associated with vertigo, which is one of its main complications,
03:21along with fluctuating hearing loss. However, regardless of the potential severity of the
03:26disease, LeClerc has managed to have a clear-headed outlook towards her condition.
03:31As she told Self in 2012,
03:33"...I try to approach everything with positivity. You live in the moment,
03:37day to day. My sister also has the disease and it hasn't stopped her. She's an inspiration to me."
03:44In 2018, after being body-shamed by trolls, model Gigi Hadid revealed that she has Hashimoto's
03:51disease, a condition that consists of the dramatic loss of thyroid follicular cells.
03:56According to a study published in the Journal of Autoimmune Diseases in 2005,
04:01it affects up to 2 percent of the general population. As Hadid tweeted,
04:06"...for those of you so determined to come up with why my body has changed over the years,
04:11you may not know that when I started at 17, I was not yet diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease.
04:17Those of you who called me too big for the industry were seeing inflammation
04:21and water retention due to that."
04:23Hadid also discussed her diagnosis in an interview with E!, as she revealed,
04:28"...I've loved my body when I was just diagnosed and I loved it going through it,
04:32and I love my body now. And it's just about everyone accepting their body as it matures
04:37and knowing that it's not always going to look the same,
04:39and you can love yourself in all different shapes and sizes."
04:43Where do you find that confidence to just tell it like it is and speak your truth, always?"
04:48Well, I think it's just good to be honest."
04:50Only a small number of the population is known to have the extremely rare condition,
04:54hyperthymesia, which causes people to recollect nearly every second of their lives. Marilu Henner,
05:01one of the stars of the classic sitcom Taxi, is one of those few who have the condition.
05:06In a 2010 chat with 60 Minutes, she showcased the incredible manifestation of her condition,
05:12as she recalled some uncanny specifics about her shoes,
05:16like the specific date that she first wore them. Referencing one particular pair, she recounted,
05:22These I wore on April the 21st, 2009, so that was a Tuesday."
05:27Henner also talked about her hyperthymesia in 2012 with ABC News, as she noted,
05:33When somebody gives me a date or a year or something, I see all these little movie montages,
05:38basically on a time continuum, and I'm scrolling through them and flashing through them."
05:43She also revealed that the condition is beneficial to her acting career, as she explained,
05:49I learned how to embrace my memories and celebrate them and explore them without
05:53hesitation whatsoever. It was this kind of skill that I developed, but I liked doing it as well."
05:59Clitocranial dysplasia is an extremely rare disorder that occurs once per one million people.
06:05The condition is characterized by bones being formed differently or being more fragile than
06:10is typical. The main features of CCD include abnormalities of the skull and collarbone,
06:16along with dental abnormalities. Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo has the condition,
06:21which affects the formation of his teeth and bones. During a 2018 appearance on The Doctors,
06:27he opened up about having already had a couple of surgeries and four extractions of extra teeth.
06:33He also discussed the stigma he faced when trying to secure acting roles.
06:38It's one of the biggest reasons why I haven't been getting roles,
06:40mainly because of my lisp and the teeth situation and my height."
06:44In 2020, Matarazzo underwent another surgery to remove extra teeth.
06:49Afterwards, he shared on Instagram that the surgery was a complete success.
06:54When she was 27 years old, writer and podcast host Emily V. Gordon was diagnosed with the
07:00extremely rare Stills disease, which is a form of inflammatory arthritis.
07:05Her condition has since progressed to a similarly rare complication,
07:09common variable immune deficiency, which is a type of dysfunction of the immune system.
07:14The illness initially mystified Gordon's doctors. They knew she had an infection in her lungs,
07:20but they were unable to figure out the root of it. As a result, she was kept in a medically
07:24induced coma for 12 days. After eliminating leukemia and HIV as possible explanations,
07:31her doctors finally determined that she had adult-onset Stills disease.
07:36The diagnosis inspired Gordon and her then-boyfriend, now-husband,
07:40Kamel Nanjiani, to write the 2017 film The Big Sick. In a 2018 interview with the Immune
07:46Deficiency Foundation, Gordon explained that her subsequent diagnosis of common variable
07:51immune deficiency highlighted the discrimination that many people with chronic illnesses face.
07:57As she revealed,
07:58"...I felt isolated. No one understands this. You feel like a bore. No one wants to talk
08:03about how you're sick again. I'd lie about why I wasn't meeting up with my friends."
08:08However, Gordon has since found solace and empowerment in the community of people who
08:13suffer chronic illnesses. She said,
08:15"...I found support when I didn't really know I was looking for it. I've learned that I'm not alone."
08:21Danny DeVito was born with multiple epiphyseal dysplasia,
08:25also known as Fairbanks disease, which is an uncommon form of dwarfism.
08:30According to the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons,
08:34it affects somewhere between one in 10,000 and one in 20,000 people.
08:38In a 2012 interview with The Guardian, DeVito said that being short only felt like a disadvantage
08:44for him when he was a teenager, as he described his height to the outlet as 5'0". But DeVito
08:50was ultimately able to utilize his uniqueness to his advantage. His distinct characteristics
08:56distinguished him from his outwardly conventional peers, thereby enabling him to secure acting
09:01roles. As he explained to The Guardian,
09:04"...early on when I'd go in for a part, people would go,
09:07oh."
09:07Later, when they rewind that meeting, it would be,
09:10"...we've seen 20 actors for the role of the servant in The Merry Wives of Windsor,
09:14but wait a minute, we've done this already with this guy. So let's try this Danny guy.
09:19I got two Shakespeare parts like that."
09:21As Los Angeles Magazine put it succinctly in an interview with DeVito in 2020,
09:26Fairbanks' disease might have prematurely stopped his vertical growth, but he blossomed
09:31in virtually every other way.
09:33"...you know, you go out and dazzle them with your footwork."
09:36Myelodysplastic syndrome is a rare blood disorder that affects about 20,000 Americans per year,
09:42according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders. For people living with this syndrome,
09:48their bone marrow doesn't produce enough healthy blood cells.
09:51Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts is one of the people with the condition,
09:55which she developed after recovering from breast cancer.
09:58In a deeply personal essay published on ABC News, Roberts revealed,
10:03"...sometimes, the treatment for cancer can cause other serious medical problems.
10:08Today, I want to let you know that I've been diagnosed with MDS,
10:12or myelodysplastic syndrome. My doctors tell me I'm going to beat this, and I know it's true."
10:18Roberts was right, as she did indeed recover from the condition.
10:22In 2017, she celebrated five years since her MDS recovery,
10:27having received a bone marrow transplant after she underwent 10 days of chemotherapy.
10:31As Roberts said of the transplant,
10:34"...it's considered to be a rebirth, and I definitely felt that I was getting another chance at life."
10:39"...I woke up, I'm like, where y'all been?"
10:42Panic attacks are a fairly common experience, but they can also lead to agoraphobia,
10:48a rare but severe complication characterized by a fear of public spaces.
10:53A 2020 study published by Europe PMC estimates that approximately 1.7 percent of the general
10:59population experiences agoraphobia. In a 2001 installment of the America Undercover docuseries
11:07entitled Panic, a film about coping, actor Kim Basinger discussed her own experience with
11:12agoraphobia. She recounted a panic attack that led to her rushing out of a health food store,
11:18driving home, and then not leaving for six months.
11:21Following her divorce from Alec Baldwin in 2002, Basinger's former brother-in-law,
11:26Billy Baldwin, made some insensitive statements to the New York Post in 2007. As he said,
11:33"...one minute she could be very loving and caring and familiar,
11:36and made you feel like you were a normal part of her world. Then, in the next breath,
11:40it all went bizarre. I don't know where agoraphobia begins and narcissism ends."
11:46These comments underscore the stigma associated with mental health disorders,
11:50particularly ones as rare as agoraphobia. Basinger's spokeswoman, Annette Wolfe,
11:55refuted Baldwin's specific remarks about her client's condition,
11:59and added that Basinger had been treated for the disorder.
12:02Six years later, Basinger opened up to Vanity Fair, as she revealed that she's found ways to
12:08carry on with her condition outside of medication. She even confronted her fears head-on by going
12:14skydiving with her daughter. As Basinger declared,
12:17"...I wanted to face everything I was afraid of."
12:21If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health,
12:24please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741,
12:30call the National Alliance on Mental Illness Helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI,
12:36that's 1-800-950-6264, or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.