16/11/2025
Bella Hadid Opens Up About Chronic Illness: 'The Medical Anxiety Is Soooooo Real'
The supermodel has been undergoing treatment for Lyme disease since she was 16 years old
By Amy McCarthy Published on November 14, 2025 09:55PM EST
Bella Hadid is getting real about her ongoing battle with chronic illness.
The model, 28, shared two posts related to her struggles with Lyme disease on her Instagram Stories on Nov. 14. The first, a meme with the text "When your chronic illness is chronic illness-ing and someone says 'it's always something with you' like... yes... one might say the illness is... chronic," was shared without comment.
On the second post, a re-share from influencer Alexandra Wildeson about the "duality" of chronic illness, Hadid opened up about her "medical anxiety."
"The medical anxiety is soooooo real," Bella wrote over the post. "Thank you for putting every one of my thoughts and daily situations into one swipe. The truuuuuth! ."
Hadid has struggled with her health in recent months. In September, she shared photos from a hospital bed as she underwent treatment for Lyme. In the images, Hadid could be seen hooked up to IV bags.
"I’m sorry I always go MIA I love you guys," Hadid wrote in the Instagram caption.
Days later, she shared photos of herself walking on a treadmill, on her "first day in the gym in a long time!"
"Just walking but still! Getting my stamina back," she wrote.
Shortly after her visit to the hospital, Bella walked the runway for Saint Laurent during Paris Fashion Week.
That same month, in September, Yolanda shared her "helplessness" in seeing Bella "struggle in silence."
“As you will understand, watching my Bella struggle in silence has cut the deepest core of hopelessness inside me," Yolanda wrote on Instagram. She praised her daughter's strength, calling her a "warrior," and described the experience as an "unknown hell."
Hadid was first diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2012, at age 16, alongside her mother, Yolanda Hadid, and brother Anwar.
Throughout the years, Hadid has dealt with severe joint pain, anxiety, brain fog, extreme tiredness and other symptoms, which her mother, former The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Hadid, told PEOPLE can "bring you to your knees."
"There are rough days when you sleep 12 hours, you wake up at 11 and you can’t get out of bed, with severe joint pain, brain fog, anxiety," Yolanda shared at the time.
In 2023, Hadid said that she was "finally healthy" after undergoing 100 days of "intense treatment" for the disease.
"Almost 15 years of invisible suffering, was all worth it if I’m able to, God willing, have a lifetime of spreading love from a full cup, and being able to truly be myself, For the first time ever," she wrote on Instagram.
