Being famous could make things tough when life is already knocking you down. When you’re sick and sad, the last thing you probably want to do is talk about it to the whole world. There are many celebrities who decided to get help secretly, and not talk about it until things got better. More specifically these seven celebrities put on a brave face for the public until they couldn’t any more.
1. Selena Gomez
“I was diagnosed with lupus, and I’ve been through chemotherapy. That’s what my break was really about. I could’ve had a stroke,” the singer told Billboard Magazine. “I wanted so badly to say, ‘You guys have no idea. I’m in chemotherapy. You’re assholes.’ I locked myself away until I was confident and comfortable again.”
2. Angelina Jolie
The actress found out she was high risk for breast cancer and ovarian cancer. “Once I knew that this was my reality,” the star wrote in The New York Times. “I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy.” She kept it private and continued working until she was ready to open up about it.
3. Demi Lovato
No one really knew about the Disney star’s struggles until she reportedly blew up by punching her backup singer. After seeking treatment she came out with her struggles of having bipolar disorder and an eating disorder. Now she is an advocate for mental health. “I’m not going to lie. I was self-medicating,” Lovato told Seventeen. “I was doing things like drinking and using [drugs], like a lot of teens do to numb their pain.”
4. Bella Hadid
The stunning model hasn’t talked about her sickness, but her mother, Yolanda Foster recently opened up about it. Turns out Bella and her brother, Anwar, are also battling Lyme disease. “Bella and Anwar, were diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease in early 2012,” said Yolanda according to Hollywood Life. “Watching my babies struggle in silence in order to support me and my journey struck the deepest chord of hopelessness inside of me, and it’s because of them that I’m motivated to stand here in front of you today.”
5. Britney Spears
The pop princess was pretty much America’s sweetheart, but then she started making headlines for strange occurrences like shaving her head. Turns out she was also struggling with mental illness. “I turn into this different person seriously. Bipolar disorder,” she explained in her E! documentary. She also talked about anxiety she inherited from her father. “Backstage I catch myself doing the same hand mannerisms as him and worrying and I’m like “Oh my god I’m turning into my f***ing father right now. This is horrible.”
6. Sarah Hyland
“My dad gave me a freakin’ kidney!” the Modern Family actress told Seventeen. She has been battling kidney dysplasia all her life. She also opened up about how her ex-boyfriend, Matt Prokop helped her in the past. “He helps me with my medication and takes me to doctor appointments and all the stuff that I need to do to take care of myself. Any other 21-year-old guy would not be there, I guarantee it.”
7. Catherine Zeta-Jones
The actress was secretly dealing with bipolar disorder for a long time until the press outed her. “I never wanted to be as open about it as I was,” she told The New York Times. “I have a British stiff-upper-lip mentality – it wasn’t something I wanted to shout from the rooftops.” But things became too stressful to hide. “When you get sideswiped like that [with Douglas’s illness] it’s an obvious trigger for your balance to be a little bit off – not sleeping, worry, stress. It’s a classic trigger.”
