Celebrities with Fibromyalgia: Lady Gaga, Morgan Freeman, and Kirsty Young’s Struggles

She recently performed five sold out nights at the London O2 arena for her Mayhem Ball tour. 

However there was a time when Lady Gaga thought she would never tour the UK again after she was forced to cancel a string of tour dates due to her fibromyalgia. 

According to the NHS fibromyalgia, also called fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), is a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body. 

It is thought to affect between 1.8 million and 2.9 million people in the UK and roughly four million adults in the US.

Symptoms include, but aren’t limited to, extreme tiredness, muscle stiffness, increased sensitivity to pain, bloating, low mood and problems concentrating. 

Frustratingly the cause of the condition is unknown, but in many cases appears to be triggered by a physical or emotional turn point, like an injury, infection or traumatic event or stress. 

And the Bad Romance hitmaker isn’t the only celebrity to be battling the chronic condition. 

Morgan Freeman, Lena Dunham and Kirsty Young have all spoken candidly about living with the condition with it often affecting their work. 

Despite nearly one in 20 people in the UK suffering there is still no cure for fibromyalgia with sufferers usually managing treatment through lifestyle changes, talking therapy and medicine such as antidepressants. 

Meanwhile many are skeptical of the condition in the first place, leaving many suffers, including celebrities, fighting to be heard.  

Lady Gaga 

While she is often running around the stage with her energetic performances to hits Bad Romance and Poker Face. 

However behind the scenes the singer, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, has spoken widely about her struggles with fibromyalgia, telling Oprah that she was ‘in head to toe pain’ during a 2020 interview.

Her battle with the health condition began in 2013 after she fractured her hip.

In February of 2018 she was forced to cancel 10 dates on her European tour – including cities such as London, Manchester and Paris – citing ‘severe pain’ at the time.

‘I’m so devastated I don’t know how to describe it,’ the singer said on Twitter at the time. ‘All I know is that if I don’t do this, I am not standing by the words or meaning of my music. My medical team is supporting the decision for me to recover at home.’

The star admitted in 2020 she was taking mental health medication which helped her symptoms ‘tremendously’.

She explained: ‘I take an anti-psychotic. [If I didn’t take it] I would spiral very frequently and I would spasm in my sleep.

‘Medicine really helped me. A lot of people are afraid of medicine for their brains to help them. I really want to erase the stigma around this.’

Yet in 2022 Gaga revealed she was finally performing pain free. 

Speaking about her Chromatica 2022 tour she told Vogue it was the ‘first time I’ve performed not in pain’. ‘I did it pain-free,’ she said. ‘I’ve like, changed.’

She added that she hasn’t ‘smoked pot’ in years, having previously spoken of using the drug to help ease her chronic pain.

Though she hasn’t fully explain why her health condition has improved so dramatically, she said the 2022 tour was the first she did while dating fiancé, US entrepreneur Michael Polansky.

‘Michael and I did that tour together,’ she said, adding later that she is ‘really excited’ to ‘organize our lives and our marriage around our creative output as a couple’.

The Poker Face hitmaker has also hit out at those who are skeptical of the condition.

‘I get so irritated with people who don’t believe fibromyalgia is real,’ she explained. 

‘For me, and I think for many others, it’s really a cyclone of anxiety, depression , PTSD, trauma, and panic disorder, all of which sends the nervous system into overdrive, and then you have nerve pain as a result.’

Morgan Freeman

Morgan began suffering from fibromyalgia following nerve damage after a serious car crash.

In 2008, the vehicle he was driving flipped multiple times near his home in Charleston, Mississippi, with the actor having to be cut free by emergency workers before being airlifted to a hospital.

The star, who was 71 at the time of the accident, was reportedly ‘hospitalised for four days after the collision and his injuries included a broken arm and elbow.’

He told Esquire magazine in 2012 that it had also left his hand paralysed, with the condition causing pain ‘up and down the arm.’ ‘That’s where it gets so bad. Excruciating.’

In 2010, he spoke about wearing a compression glove to keep the blood flowing.

‘I suffered nerve damage, and it hasn’t gotten better. I can’t move it,’ he told People magazine.

‘If you don’t move your hand, it will swell up. Do you know you move your hand about a million times a day?’

Kirsty Young 

When Kirsty Young first suggested she might have fibromyalgia, a medic ‘snorted’ and suggested it was not a real illness.

The radio host has previously spoken about how she spent a long time in pain, which began with her elbow joints, before she received a diagnosis. 

‘I had it for probably about a year to a year and a half, increasing, it increased over time and the migraines became more, the pain became more, the fatigue became more, so it kind of increased over time before I successfully managed (to get medical advice).’

Recalling her conversation with medical professionals she said: ‘I said “I’ve read about this thing called fibromyalgia, could it be fibromyalgia?” They actually did snort… She snorted… I said “Is that not a thing?”.

‘She said “That’s not a thing, that’s where we put people when they don’t have something, just to say they’ve got something”.

Discussing her symptoms she said: ‘your pain centre is overinterpreting things that would happen normally in your body.

‘I have at my worst felt as though someone has drugged my cup of tea, almost sort of swaying with fatigue, and (I feel like) just having to just opt out of doing anything because the fatigue is almost like cement in your body.’

Kirsty’s suffering got so bad it eventually led to her having to step down from her job hosting Desert Island Discs in 2018 as she underwent treatment for the syndrome as well as rheumatoid arthritis.

With treatment, the broadcaster has said the symptoms of both conditions are now much better controlled – but admitted she had been changed by her health problems.

Lena Dunham

Lena Dunham opened up about living with fibromyalgia back in 2018 with the star linking the beginning of her symptoms to when Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, claiming he sexually assaulted her. 

And taking to Instagram the actress shared he experience of trauma linked pain. 

She penned: ‘This is a post about chronic pain. I have it. I bet a lot of you do too. Some of us talk about it. Others are afraid to, as it could cost them their jobs or their relationships or their sense of control in a chaotic world. In this way it’s very analogous to sexual trauma. 

‘There is also (as @ladygaga so wisely shared this week) a proven connection between chronic pain and trauma. Therefore, a lot of people- a lot of women- find their pain is activated by weeks like this one. 

‘On the day after Dr. Ford’s testimony I awoke with a start at 3am. It felt like every cell in my neck was singing. My ankles and wrists were weak and my fingers didn’t do their assigned job. 

‘Yesterday I felt like I was suspended in gel, and when I meditated a line of pain zipped from my neck to my foot. 

‘I’m sorry if I don’t answer your text or email, or if I can’t show up the way someone else would. I appear to be totally able bodied but it’s complex, and I am just trying to do everything required to maintain a life of joy and service. 

‘My work costs everything I have. This is fibromyalgia. It’s little understood and so even though I have a lot of knowledge and support it’s hard to shake the feeling I am crazy. 

‘But I’m not (at least not this way!) and you’re not. Your pain, whatever shape it takes, is yours and so it is real. I believe you when you say you hurt. I have learned time and time again how important it is to believe.’ 

Sinead O’Connor

In 2003, the late Sinead O’Connor revealed she was suffering from the condition which caused her to put her career on hold for several years as she opened up about her extreme fatigue. 

‘It’s the tiredness part that I have difficulty with, but you get to know your limits so you can work and plan around it,’ she said.

Speaking in an interview with HOTPRESS in 2005 she said: ‘Fibromyalgia is not curable. But it’s manageable.

‘I have a high pain threshold, so that helps – it’s the tiredness part that I have difficulty with. You get to know your patterns and limits, though, so you can work and plan around it. 

‘It is made worse, obviously, by stress. So you have to try to keep life quiet and peaceful.’

Jo Guest 

Jo Guest also struggled with diagnosis after doctors couldn’t find the root cause of her illness back in 2007. 

The Page 3 model began experiencing extreme bloating, swelling, nausea, muscle pain and tiredness to such an extent that she struggled to wash herself more than once a week.

Speaking on This Morning in 2008, the former model admitted she had been left devastated by the condition, admitting: ‘One day I tried to put on my favourite boots and couldn’t zip them up – I realised my calves were swollen. I thought maybe it was down to the change in my lifestyle.

‘At first I thought it was just a virus, but it just wouldn’t stop. I was getting up and being sick all morning and having to spend the afternoon in bed.’

‘When you come out of hospital and you’re told everything’s normal, you should be happy, but I don’t want to be told everything’s normal — I just want to be told what’s wrong with me,’ she recalled.

Jo was eventually given a diagnosis, but the illness left her unable to work – resulting in her building of debts of £15,000 and being forced to live on a paltry £65-a-week in benefits.

It also impacted Jo’s romantic relationships as she confessed she gave up trying to find love as the illness shattered her confidence. 

She told the Daily Star: ‘Why would any man want to have sex with me now? I feel so unattractive and I’ve got this horrible belly. I used to love wearing sexy clothes and short skirts, but I don’t enjoy dressing up any more.

‘The spark has gone out of life. It’s hard to feel good about yourself or like a sexy woman when you feel so ill.’

Kyle Richards

Like Lena, Kyle Richards claims her fibromyalgia symptoms also coincided with a traumatic event, beginning during a time when her mum was battling breast cancer. 

Opening up about the condition on an episode of The Healer back in 2017, the Real House Wives of Beverly Hills star said: ‘My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, but as my mom was sick and taking care of her I started feeling really sick myself. 

‘I went to a lot of different doctors and they would say, “Oh, you’re just depressed because your mom died.” 

‘And I was like, “I’m just not buying that it’s only I’m depressed. Why am I having all these crazy symptoms?”.’

She continued: ‘Then I was talking with someone and she said, “You have fibromyalgia. Everything you just said is fibromyalgia.”

‘So I went to this doctor who specialises in it, and he asked me a lot of questions. All of a sudden I felt like I had an answer and I felt better because it caused so much anxiety.’

Appearing on the programme which follows Charlie Goldsmith, who uses energy to help others, Kyle believes Charlie helped her with the pain. 

She said that as Charlie began using energy to help heal Kyle she felt a ‘warm, tingling sensation going through the area that bothers me most,’ which were her neck and shoulders. 

Jonathon Ross’ daughter Betty 

Jonathan Ross’s daughter Betty also suffers from the condition, with the broadcaster stopping his famous annual Halloween bash because he didn’t think it would be fair for them to be having a party while she’s feeling unwell.

Back in 2022 he explained she is now using an electric wheelchair as she can’t walk too far. 

Jonathan explained doctors originally believed Betty was suffering with long Covid.

Betty, 31, also suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome and postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS) which causes an abnormal increase in the heart rate after sitting or standing.

Speaking on Loose Women, Jonathan said: ‘She has fibromyalgia and she has chronic fatigue syndrome and POTS syndrome as well, which is where your heart rate shoots up.’

‘We found a good… there’s a thing called the Perrin treatment. The guy who invented it, he came to talk to me about it and she looked it up online because she’s a smart young woman, so she has to want to do the treatment.

‘You know, I mean, I can’t just say to her “try this, try that” if she thinks it’s wrong in some way and if she’s not going to enter it one hundred per cent, of course it’s not worth doing.

‘But we’ve been having that treatment going on and she’s definitely showing some improvement.’

And Betty herself has spoken about how much having the wheelchair has helped her and ‘opened up’ her world. 

Sharing snaps back in 2023 she penned: ‘Since I bought my wheelchair from Distribe just over a year ago, the world has really opened up for me so drastically and so much more than I’d even thought possible before buying.

‘I’ve been able to go out, make memories, and have adventures, even on some of my worse health days.’