Celebrities with links to Lupus
Teddi King (September 18, 1929 - November 18, 1977) was an American jazz and pop vocalist. In the 1960s, she opened the Playboy Club, where she often performed.
After developing lupus, she managed to make a brief comeback with a 1977 album and with two more albums recorded for Audiophile released posthumously. She died of the disease on November 18, 1977.
Lady Gaga's Aunt Joan died of lupus complications. In an interview for the Times she was asked if she had been tested for lupus and said: “Yes. but I don’t want anyone to be worried.” She did not actually reveal if the tests were negative or positive. She has since confirmed that her test shows she has ‘borderline’ lupus in an interview with Larry King 2nd June 2010.
Australian model Robyn Lawley was diagnosed with lupus in 2015, saying it was "the most 'painful' ordeal she’s ever been through".
She went on to say " “I had symptoms towards the end of the pregnancy. It started in the muscles. I couldn’t pick up things very well and I was losing the ability to walk and to talk. I have a super high pain threshold ... I delivered an 11 pound baby ... so when I couldn’t even pick up things, the doctors, at first, didn’t take me seriously.
It wasn’t until my family — my sisters and my mum came over and saw me and said ‘That’s not how Robyn is’. They wheelchaired me off to hospital and that’s when I got checked out [and diagnosed].”
In 2018 Robyn revealed via Instagram photographs that she had a seizure and fell down the stairs at her home. Full story here.
Julian Lennon became a Patron of the Lupus Trust in December 2010. His school friend Lucy Vodden had lupus and sadly passed away in 2009 aged just 46. Lucy was the inspiration behind the Beatles classic 'Lucy in the sky with Diamonds'.
Muni Long is an American singer and songwriter who was diagnosed with lupus in 2018.
Her lyrics have been sung by artists like Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Madonna, Demi Lovato, and countless others. The song Hrs and Hrs written and performed by Muni had over 169.2M video views on TikTok and 109 million views on Youtube..
“Lupus is a stress-related disease, it’s a silent, invisible struggle ’cause you can’t see it. You wake up in the morning and you look just fine, but you really feel like you got ran over by a train. There’s a lot of different things that I’ve experienced with this diagnosis, everything from hair loss to skin rashes. Being in this business is vainglorious, so that affects my output so much. When I feel good, I look good, I produce well. When I feel like crap, and I gotta go out… Even something as small as someone touching my arm, it hurts. But I gotta smile, and I gotta talk to people when I don’t feel like talking.”
Lisa Left Eye Lopes of TLC, suffered from lupus and often supported lupus charities in the USA. She died in a car crash aged 30.
During the 1980s, Ferdinand Marcos was seriously ill and was in and out of office. He had systemic lupus erythematosus, which led to kidney failure. He was then on dialysis and later had a kidney transplant. Marcos finally died in Honolulu in 1989.
Doctors said lung and kidney failure and a widespread infection contributed to the cardiac arrest that was listed as the cause of death.
Emmy award nominated American actress, Kellie Martins sister, Heather, died of lupus in 1998 aged just 19. Kellie is most famous for her role as Lucy Knight in ER.
Georgeanna Tillman (February 5, 1944 - January 6, 1980)
Georgeanna Tillman was a member of group the Marvelettes, who were Motown’s first successful girl group. They had a number of hit records such as ‘Please Mr. Postman’, ‘When you’re young and in love’ and ‘too many fish in the sea’.
By 1965, Georgeanna was battling lupus. As her health problems worsened, her doctor advised her to stop touring and she left the group for good but remained at Motown for a while as a secretary. She died in 1980 from the complications of sickle cell anaemia and lupus. The Marvelettes continued on as a trio.
Catherine is British actress born in Alton in Hampshire. Appearing in films such as: Braveheart, Shadow of the Vampire, The Land Girls, A sound of thunder, Midnight Man and Dangerous Beauty.
Her mother died of lupus when Catherine was 6 years old.
Mary McDonaugh, best known for her role as Erin in the Waltons suffers from Lupus and when interviewed states that she thinks having breast implants in 1984 triggered the lupus as the symptoms started shortly afterwards. She played the part of a lupus sufferer having a kidney transplant in the programme ER in 1997. Mary told her story to the Lupus Trust and it has since appeared in our newsletter and on our website.
Righteous Brother Bill Medley still fundraises for lupus after the other half of the Righteous Brothers, the late Bobby Hatfield’s wife Linda battled lupus. Bobby tirelessly worked to help increase awareness and raise funds for patient services and research.
“When I was a child, my parents had a friend, the son of my Godparents, who had a form of lupus. He'd lost all the skin around his face, couldn't shut his eyes, he was going blind. It was horrendous to look at”.
Natalis, is a multi-platinum, Two time Grammy Nominated Artist straight out of the Bronx, NY.
Davis Chris & Mr Foster reached out to her about working on an upcoming Gospel Album, the Good Fridays, the album was created to celebrate life because Natalis also battles with Lupus on a daily basis.
American singer and entertainer Wayne Newton’s sister-in-law, Tricia McCrone, was diagnosed with lupus in 2001 aged 30. Wayne calls Tricia "very courageous" adding "She has held her integrity and never let the disease stop her from doing anything she wanted to accomplish"
The famous American author, Flannery O’Connor, was born on March 25, 1925. Her father, Edward, died from lupus complications in 1941, when O’Connor was 15.
It was during this time that she wrote more than two dozen short stories and two novels. She died at age 39 from lupus complications.
Actress Victoria Principal. Her father suffers from arthritis and her mother from lupus, and a number of years ago said she was beginning to suffer trace symptoms of both.
Richard Dreyfuss’ first wife, Jeramie Rain has systemic lupus. Her pregnancy exacerbated her lupus, which was so painful that at one point she couldn’t hold her daughter.
Kristen Louise Renton is an American actor recurring as Ima Tite on Sons of Anarchy and formerly known for portraying Morgan Hollingsworth on NBC's soap opera Days of Our Lives. Kristen was diagnosed with lupus in 2010, revealing her diagnosis in 2017.
Joy Rose, lead singer Housewives on Prozac. Fifteen years ago, Joy Rose was a stay-at-home mum with 4 children.
Ten days after her youngest was born, she was diagnosed with Lupus, which in her case was life-threatening.
Seven years, multiple hospital stays and one kidney transplant later, Joy made a commitment to do as much as she could to empower herself and other women to lead better lives. So she became a rock star!
