Photos : Fiona Phillips, Eamonn Holmes, Hannah Spearritt: Celebrities who have been struggling with their health
In a recent documentary entitled I Am: Céline Dion, the singer showed her daily struggles with a rare disease.
Céline Dion decided to make her diagnosis public as soon as she got it. She struggles with Stiff Person Syndrome, a rare neurological disease which attacks her nerves and muscles.
Shannen Doherty, who rose to fame thanks to her role in Charmed, revealed she was suffering from breast cancer in 2015.
In 2023, Shannen Doherty revealed her cancer was back and had spread to her bones and brain. Unfortunately, the star succumbed to the disease and passed away on 13 July 2024.
Iconic presenter and broadcaster Eamonn Holmes has regularly spoken about his health issues, especially his back pain.
Eamonn Holmes revealed he suffers from chronic back pain, which requires him to walk with a stick. He was also recently seen in a wheelchair.
Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Amy Dowden had to take time off last year to undergo chemotherapy.
In 2023, Amy Dowden revealed she suffered from stage 3 breast cancer. After undergoing heavy treatment, she revealed in February 2024 that ‘no evidence of the disease’.
She is now back doing what she loves the most: dancing.
At the age of 29, Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He made his diagnosis public in 1998 and still speaks out on the subject.
In 2000, the actor launched his own foundation, the Michael J. Fox foundation, which has since raised millions for research on how to treat and possibly even cure the disease.
British star magician Dynamo revealed he has been battling athritis since being hospitalised for a bout of food poisoning.
Dynamo suffers from Crohn's disease, which affects the digestive system. When he was just seventeen, he had to have part of his stomach removed due to a complication.
Selena Gomez often speaks out about her struggles with Lupus, an autoimmune disease which makes your immune system attack your tissues and organs.
Following a complication, Selena Gomez needed a kidney transplant to save her life. Her best friend, Francia Raisa, gave her one of her kidneys, which she calls ‘the ultimate gift of life’.
In July 2021, Molly-Mae Hague revealed she suffers from endometriosis, a painful condition which affects 10% of women in the world.
In 2022, Molly-Mae Hague had to undergo surgery to remove some of the affected areas of her body. She explained:
‘The operation was way way harder to go through than I thought and my recovery time was quite a bit longer than I had planned and I was just a bit of a mess.’
In 2017, Lady Gaga released a Netflix documentary in which she shared a diagnosis and her daily struggles.
Fibromyalgia is a condition that causes pain all over the body, as well as fatigue, muscle stiffness and difficulty concentrating.
Nick Jonas grew up in the spotlight alongside his brothers, Joe and Kevin. In 2007, he opened up about a diagnosis that he got at just 16 years old.
Nick Jonas revealed he has Type 1 diabetes, an incurable chronic condition in which the pancreas makes little to no insulin. According to Mayo Clinic, when there is no insulin in your body it allows the sugar to accumulate in your body as it does not turn into energy. This could lead to ‘life-threatening complications’.
Despite being a very private person, Sia chose to make her diagnosis public in 2010.
Sia suffers from Grave's disease, an autoimmune disorder which can cause shaky hands, a fast and irregular heartbeat and fatigue.
Alec Baldwin has been dealing with a recurrent disease for the over 20 years…
In 2021 he opened up about the disease and talked about the symptoms in a podcast saying, as quoted by People:
'This thing just attacks me and I wound up laying in my bed for three days sweating through my sheets and just this horrible joint pain and soreness and exhausted. I couldn't even get up for like three days.'
The BBC journalist and broadcaster revealed her diagnosis in 2023, after having suffered from symptoms since 2022.
Fiona Phillips suffered from brain fog and anxiety for a year before getting her diagnosis. In 2023, she revealed she suffers from Alzheimer's, at the age of 62.
In 2018, the actress revealed she suffers from multiple sclerosis, a condition which affects the brain and spinal cord.
When asked about her condition, Selma Blair explains:
‘I am disabled. I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken gps. But we are doing it. And I laugh and I don’t know exactly what I will do precisely but I will do my best.’
Gareth Thomas was first rugbyman to ever come out. He was also the first to open up about his HIV diagnosis and daily battles.
After months of rumours, Gareth Thomas announced he is HIV-positive in 2015. He explained he had to speak out after receiving threats. He is a trailblazer in ending stigma surrounding people living with HIV.
The Avengers Assemble actress explained she was encouraged to have surgery to help with her puffy eyes, before explaining they are due to water retention.
Since the beginning of her career in the 1970s, Jenny Agutten has always refused cosmetic surgery. She explained water retention causes her face to become immobile sometimes.
S Club 7 singer Hannah Spearritt opened up about her health issues in 2023.
Hannah Spearritt revealed her autoimmune disease causes vertigo, chronic fatigue and brain fog. She explained:
'I don't think I realised how much I'd deteriorated because it happened so gradually, I had no energy and couldn't even get on a train or cook dinner. That affected my mental health, too, because I've always been a physical and sporty person, it's only when you get better and can do things you love again that you realise how bad things were.'
Ali Bastian is best known for her role as Becca Dean in Hollyoaks from 2001 to 2007. She recently moved to Ireland with her husband and two daughters, when she received some life-changing news.
In an exclusive interview, she revealed to OK! that she has been diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. She said she was diagnosed at the end of June, and that it was a total shock. She added:
'I have mornings when I wake up and I’ve forgotten… and then suddenly I remember. I’m still trying to process it.'
She is currently undergoing chemotherapy for the next five months, after which she will have a mastectomy and radio therapy treatment. Her husband said:
‘I could see how scared and in shock she was. It’s so tempting to try and ‘positive’ your way through news like this but it just hit us like a sledgehammer. I just had a feeling of it being so unfair that Ali had been dealt this hand.’
Jamie Theakston is a well-loved radio and television presenter. He currently hosts Heart Radio breakfast show alongside Amanda Holden. However, he recently got some tragic news after fans noticed a change in his voice.
His fans' concerns prompted him to get checked and as a result, doctors removed a lesion from his vocal cords. The lesion then tested positive for cancer. The star revealed he has stage one laryngeal cancer in an Instagram post, and added that he has to take a step back from work.
His wife, Sophie Siegel, shared his post and said: ‘My man. We got this.’
Nadya Hussain skyrocketed into fame when she won the 2015 series of The Great British Bake Off. The 39-year-old wowed fans with her skills and has now made a living out of cooking and baking.
However, on 7 October she announced some worrying news to her almost 900K followers on Instagram. She revealed that she had not been feeling well for over two years, and has been diagnosed with not one but two autoimmune diseases. She said:
'…over the course of two years, I've been quite unwell. I've just been getting quite sick.'
'I've been diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases, which I'm not going to go into now.'
She urged the public to ‘listen to your body’ and ‘take care of yourself.’
Her followers flooded her post with words of support, love, and concern.
In November 2024, Davina McCall took her fans by surprise when she revealed that she was getting brain surgery.
She said, in an Instagram video, that she had received a rare diagnosis that only happens to ‘three in a million’.
Indeed, she revealed that during a health scan, doctors found a benign brain tumour. She said:
'I did a menopause talk for a company, and they offered me a health scan in return, which I thought I was going to ace, but it turned out I had a benign brain tumour called a colloid cyst, which is very rare, three in a million.'
On the same day her announcement was posted, she went in for surgery to get the 14cm-wide tumour removed. Following the operation, her partner Micheal Douglas shared that the it went well and that she was recovering. He said:
‘She’s currently recovering in ICU as a precaution, as you can imagine she’s utterly exhausted.’
'Thanks so much for all the love from everyone on here … it’s powerful stuff, we are super grateful.'
Many who grew up watching Full House, know that Uncle Joey was the life of the show. The role was played by Dave Coulier, who announced some tragic news in 2024.
The Full House actor had been diagnosed with Stage 3 blood cancer called non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He told Today, exclusively, that he first started noticing symptoms after he got a cold. He then noticed an enlarged lump in his groin area which was growing fast.
After some tests, his doctors confirmed the news. Dave said:
‘(I was) feeling like I got punched in the stomach because it never happens to you. You always hear about it happening to someone else.’
The actor is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
