Celebrities Who Were Diagnosed With Life-Threatening Diseases

Any move a celebrity makes, whether personal or professional, is often shared in the media and gets viewed by the entire world. What we don't often see front and center, however, are the serious health conditions they may be dealing with. When you're diagnosed and living with a chronic or life-threatening illness, it can be difficult to share that private part of your life — especially when you're constantly in the spotlight already (via Medline Plus).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, six in ten adults in the U.S. have a chronic disease, and four in ten adults have at least two. When you're diagnosed with such a disease, it's considered to be a condition that lasts at least a year and requires ongoing treatment. Some examples of these conditions include heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, stroke, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease.

Celebrities are, of course, not immune to chronic disease. Here's a look at some of your favorite celebs who were diagnosed with life-threatening conditions.

Back in 1991, Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He kept it a secret for seven years while continuing to work as an actor. Then, in the year 2000, he launched The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, which is "the world's largest non-profit funder of Parkinson's drug development" (via The Michael J. Fox Foundation). The reason he kept it under wraps from the public for so long? "To be honest, my fear was that if they knew that I had an illness, a condition, that they wouldn't be able to laugh," Fox stated in an interview with BBC.

Parkinson's disease causes nerve cells in the brain to breakdown or die. This results in symptoms like tremors, slowed movement, speech changes, and muscle stiffness, according to the Mayo Clinic. "I accepted it and it sucks and it's hard and it's a drag being different," he revealed in the BBC interview. "It's a drag not being able to put your socks on in the morning some mornings." He followed up with, "But there's so much more in life."

Lupus is an autoimmune disorder that causes the immune system attack the tissues and organs of the body. The inflammation created by lupus can damage important organs including a person's kidneys, brain, heart, and lungs (via Mayo Clinic).

Singer Selena Gomez was diagnosed with the disease back in 2015 and was very open about how it impacted her health — both physical and mental. In an interview on the podcast Giving Back Generation, Gomez explained, "I have lupus and deal with kidney issues and high blood pressure, so I deal with a lot of health issues, and for me that's when I really started noticing more of the body image stuff" (via USA Today). She went on to add, "And in reality, that's just my truth, I fluctuate [weight] ... and that got to me big time."

Two years after her diagnosis, Gomez revealed on Instagram that she had received a life-saving transplant. "So I found out I needed to get a kidney transplant due to my lupus," she said in the post. She went on to thank her friend, actress, and kidney donor, Francia Raisa, for "the ultimate gift and sacrifice."

Model Bella Hadid has been open and honest about her diagnosis with Lyme disease. Lyme disease comes from infected ticks who transmits the infection to humans after a bite. Symptoms usually consist of fever, headache, fatigue, and a skin rash. If it's not treated, the infection can spread to the heart, joints, and nervous system (via CDC).

Lyme disease can be considered an "invisible" illness, which Bella addressed in an interview with People. "Life isn't always what it looks like on the outside," she explained. "And the hardest part of this journey is to be judged by the way you look instead of the way you feel." Bella isn't the only member of her family with the disease, however. Both her mother Yolanda and her brother Anwar have also been diagnosed.

Yolanda revealed some of the challenges she faces with Lyme disease. "There are rough days when you sleep 12 hours, you wake up at 11 and you can't get out of bed, with severe joint pain, brain fog, anxiety," she said in an interview with People. "There are a lot of symptoms that you can't see from the outside but bring you to your knees on the inside."

Olympian Venus Williams dominated the game of tennis, but she knew something was amiss in 2004 when she began experiencing symptoms that were leaving her tired. "No matter how hard I worked, I was exhausted, short of breath, and never felt in shape. It was really frustrating," Williams said in an interview with Prevention. "My symptoms got progressively worse, to the point where I couldn't play professional tennis anymore."

In 2011, Williams was diagnosed with Sjögren's syndrome, an autoimmune condition that causes dry eyes, dry mouth, joint pain, and fatigue (via Mayo Clinic). Since this condition mainly impacts the eyes and mouth, it can lead to vision and dental problems. More severe complications involve pneumonia, cirrhosis of the liver, and kidney dysfunction, which can lead to hepatitis.

In an interview with Health, Williams said changing her diet helped her better manage her symptoms and "maintain [her] performance on the court." She continued, saying, "Once I started I fell in love with the concept of fueling your body in the best way possible. Not only does it help me on the court, but I feel like I'm doing the right thing for me."

Kidney dysplasia occurs when a fetus does not fully develop kidneys. Either one or both kidneys can be impacted, and children born with this condition often need blood filtering-treatments (dialysis) or a kidney transplant, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. This was the case for actress Sarah Hyland.

In an interview with Self, Hyland described receiving her first kidney transplant, which was donated by her father, in 2011. "What most people don't know is that about two years ago exactly [2016], I went into rejection," she revealed, attempting to hold back tears. After that kidney started failing, Hyland had to start dialysis. "I needed to be hooked up to a machine three times a week for four hours per session," she continued.

She revealed that she remained on dialysis from February through October 2017. During that time, she found out her brother was a match to donate his kidney. In September 2017, she underwent a second kidney transplant. Thankfully, she told the publication in December 2018, "I'm healed, my numbers are good, I'm stable, I'm so grateful for my entire family."

Epilepsy impacts the nervous system, causing brain activity to become abnormal. This can lead to "seizures or periods of unusual behavior, sensations, and sometimes loss of awareness," according to the Mayo Clinic. In order to be diagnosed with epilepsy, a person generally needs to have had two "unprovoked" seizures. People with the condition have a minor risk of SUDEP, or a sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. Seizures can also be especially dangerous while bathing, swimming, or driving.

Actress Melanie Griffith was diagnosed with epilepsy after years of being unsure. "I had two seizures, one they took me off the boat [at the Cannes Film Festival]," Griffith said at a Women's Brain Health Initiative panel (via The Hollywood Reporter). "I had this major grand mal seizure, and they took me to the hospital in Cannes and then brought me back to the boat. And then I had another seizure, and I went back."

She then had an EEG, a test that monitors electrical activity in the brain, and was diagnosed with epilepsy once she returned to the United States. At the 2017 panel, she revealed that since getting a divorce and taking medication, she hasn't had a seizure in four years.

Comedian Pete Davidson was diagnosed with Crohn's disease when he was a teenager. This condition impacts the digestive tract, creating inflammation that leads to abdominal pain, severe diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss, and malnutrition (via Mayo Clinic). Those with the disease are at risk of developing ulcers, colon cancer, and gallbladder or liver disease.

In the years since his diagnosis, Davidson has found a routine that helps him manage the side effects of Chron's disease. However, it took a while to get to that place. "There was a point where I couldn't get out of bed. I was 110 pounds," he told Howard Stern in an interview (via Nylon). His choice of treatment: marijuana. "Weed would be the only thing that would help me eat because my stomach would be in pain all day," he said in an interview with High Times (via Insider). "I wouldn't be able to do SNL if I didn't smoke weed." Of course, there are other treatments people with the disease may find helpful, according to the Mayo Clinic.