It is true that stars can get ill just like the rest of us and some of them are quite vocal about their diseases, yet others prefer to keep their health problems a secret. They may be gorgeous-looking, rich and famous, but when it comes to chronic diseases, all human beings are just the same. Here’s a list of celebrities who are struggling with chronic diseases while leading active lives as actors, actresses and performers.
Missy Elliot
We haven’t heard from this girl for a while now and there’s a reason for that. She had to step out of the spotlight a few years ago when she was diagnosed with the Graves’ Disease. Her music career was put on hold as she was battling the autoimmune condition, which affected her thyroid and lead to fatigue, insomnia, eye problems and goiter. Some say that at some point the illness got so bad that she couldn’t drive a car or write music anymore.
Daniel Radcliffe
The star of Harry Potter turned out to be the very unlucky 1% out of all population that suffers from the incurable condition called ‘cluster headaches’. It’s a truly agonizing illness that causes a person to experience severe head pain on one side of the head. The pain is much more intense than that of migraines and is hardly tolerable. Cluster headaches tend to affect men more than women.
Kim Kardashian
It may seem that Kim is almost perfect when it comes to good looks and everything connected with beauty, yet, ironically, she suffers from a rare skin condition that makes it harder for her to be in the spotlight. As she revealed in Keeping Up with the Kardashians, she inherited this scaly skin disorder (psoriasis) from her mom and now has to battle this disease on a daily basis. Psoriasis causes rashes and breakouts to show up sporadically, which is something no celebrity would want to experience.
Michael C. Hall
The star of the world famous Dexter show, shocked millions of fans back in 2010 when he announced that he had Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He won the Golden Globe award for Best Actor the very same year! Right now his cancer is in remission and his condition seems to be stable. We hope it’ll remain that way for years to come.
Selena Gomez
This young gorgeous starlet had to cancel her 2013 tour when she was diagnosed with Lupus. This type of autoimmune disease is more common in women and is usually diagnosed at a later age. Lupus makes the body attack itself, thinking that its own cells are harmful invaders and need to be annihilated. The disease can cause all kinds of symptoms all over the body, including mouth ulcers, skin rashes and kidney problems.
Michael J. Fox
It may come as a surprise to many people that Michael J. Fox, the star of Back to the Future, has been suffering from a grave chronic disease for over 20 years. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991, but has remained pretty much silent about his condition. His illness was revealed to the public in 1998, after 7 years of battling it in secret. Right now the illness is in the advanced stage and Michael J. Fox is making everything in his power to raise awareness about the disease.
Pamela Anderson
This gorgeous Baywatch star was truly unlucky during one tattoo session when she shared a needle with Tommy Lee, her ex-husband. She contracted Hepatitis C from the tattoo needle, and has been struggling from the liver disease ever since. Pamela Anderson has made everything possible to raise awareness about the safety of tattoo practices.
Angelina Jolie
It has become a real shocker for billions of fans all across the globe when Angelina Jolie released her announcement in The New York Times back in 2013. It turned out that the actress carried a mutation in the BRCA1 gene and had undergone a double mastectomy because of it. This mutation increases the risk of breast cancer development in women. Jolie’s raised the awareness of the role genetic mutations play in breast cancer. Scientists have even called it ‘the Angelina effect’.
Charlie Sheen
It was a real shock for many of Charlie Sheen’s fans when back in 2015 he confirmed during an interview on NBC’s ‘Today Show’ that he is HIV positive.
