Halsey is on the comeback, and the singer is “lucky to be alive.”
On Tuesday, the Grammy-nominated artist shared an update to social media that revealed she has been privately battling several chronic illnesses. (Halsey uses she/they pronouns.)
“Long story short, i’m Lucky to be alive. short story long, i wrote an album,” Halsey, 29, wrote on Instagram.
Halsey, whose real name is Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, did not explicitly disclose her diagnoses. She did, however, tag the nonprofits Lupus Research Alliance and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in her post.
Lupus is a chronic condition caused by inflammation in one or more parts of the body. According to Lupus Canada, the disease is “complex and baffling” and can target any tissue or organ of the body, including skin, muscles, blood, heart and the brain. An estimated one in 1,000 Canadians have been diagnosed with lupus. There is no cure.
Leukemia and lymphoma are both forms of blood cancer. Respectively, leukemia affects the blood and bone marrow while lymphoma affects a part of the body that protects from disease and infection, called the lymphatic system. Both conditions are commonly treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. There were an estimated 6,900 new cases of leukemia in Canada in 2020, and 11,400 new diagnoses of lymphoma in the same year.
In her Instagram post, Halsey shared several videos, one of which shows her massaging her legs, seemingly in pain.
“I feel like an old lady,” the Without Me singer bemoaned. “I told myself I’m giving myself two more years to be sick. When I’m 30, I’m having a rebirth and I’m not going to be sick, and I’m going to look super-hot and have lots of energy, and I’m just going to get to re-do my 20s in my 30s.”
Halsey also shared videos of herself receiving medical treatments, crying and strumming a guitar.
Alongside the admission about her personal health, Halsey released a new song about chronic illness, called The End.
“Every couple of years now / a doctor says I’m sick / pulls out a brand-new bag of tricks / and then they lay it on me,” they sing in the single.
In 2022, Halsey said they experienced several health setbacks after giving birth to her first child, Ender. She said she became “really, really, really sick,” despite having already been ill for most of her adult life.
She told Vanity Fair she was hospitalized several times for anaphylaxis and was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Sjogren’s syndrome, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Halsey had earlier been diagnosed with endometriosis.
Halsey is best known for her contribution on The Chainsmokers song Closer, as well as for her first album Badlands, which included the tracks Colors and New Americana.