“This disease has brought us to our knees”: Yolanda opens up about daughter Bella’s battle with Lyme disease

Yolanda Hadid has been struggling with daughter Bella Hadid's ailing health.

The former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 61, took to Instagram on Thursday, September 18, to share a string of photos of her younger daughter, Bella Hadid, in the hospital. The latter suffers from Lyme disease, a complex neurological ailment. Per The Daily Mail, she was diagnosed with the same in 2016.

“As you will understand, watching my Bella struggle in silence has cut the deepest core of hopelessness inside me,” she wrote. “The invisible disability of chronic neurological Lyme disease is hard to explain or understand for anyone. I try to lead by example on our Lyme journey but my own pain cannot compare to watching my baby suffer.”

Yolanda Hadid added,

"This disease has brought us to our knees, but we always get back up. We will continue to fight for better days together. You are a survivor… I love you so much my badass Warrior.”

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Yolanda Hadid laments her daughter's failed dreams of becoming an Olympic champion: Read more

As reported by People Magazine, Yolanda Hadid was diagnosed with Lyme disease herself in 2012. In recent years, she said she stopped speaking up about her own health struggles in a bid to heal. Referring to herself as the “CEO of my health,” she said that she's still rallying to find a cure that everyone can afford.

In her post on Instagram, Yolanda Hadid also lauded her daughter for being a “warrior” during her trying times, which she said was an “unknown hell.”

“To my beautiful Bellita: You are relentless and courageous. No child is supposed to suffer in their body with an incurable chronic disease,” she said. “I admire your bravery and your willingness to keep fighting for health despite the failing protocols and countless setbacks you have faced. There simply aren’t words big enough for the darkness, the pain, and the unknown hell you’ve lived through since your diagnosis in 2013. You didn’t really live, you learned how to exist inside the jail of your own paralyzed brain.”

She continued,

“I am so proud of the fighter that you are. You are not alone, I promise to have your back every step of the way, no matter how long this takes,” Yolanda continued. “You have fought through another month of treatment and I know god is good, miracles do happen everyday 🙏 I pray for your speedy recovery my love."

Per The Daily Mail, Yolanda Hadid's post comes on the heels of Bella's own update with fans on Instagram. In her Wednesday post, Bella, the younger sister of Gigi Hadid, revealed that she was injected with an IV and was breathing through an oxygen tube.

In the concerning images, she was reportedly at an overseas hospital, visibly emotional.

'I’m sorry I always go MIA I love you guys,' she penned in the caption.

Per the Daily Mail, back in 2023, the supermodel gave fans a closer look into her ongoing ordeal when she shared close-ups of a 2014 document detailing her symptoms. At the time, her complaints included:

"fatigue, attention issues, memory problems, difficulty sleeping, depression and physical."

Her colon was also infected at the time, and indicated the presence of bacteria. She was also struck with a fungal infection and parasites.

'The little me that suffered would be so proud of grown me for not giving up on myself,' she penned at the time, before giving Yolanda Hadid a shoutout. 'Thankful to my mommy for keeping all of my medical records, sticking by me, never leaving my side, protecting, supporting, but most of all, believing me through all of this,' she wrote.

She also said that her condition was deteriorating, but she was confident she would pull through:

'1: I am okay and you do not have to worry, ♥️and 2:I wouldn’t change anything for the world. If I had to go through all of this again, to get here, to this exact moment I’m in right now, with all of you, finally healthy, I would do it all again. It made me who I am today."

Per ET Online, in March 2016, Yolanda Hadid opened up about her daughter's struggles with the ailment. During an episode of The Dr. Oz Show, she said at the time:

“Every night, she would [say], 'Mommy, massage my back please,' and I would make hot baths, and salt baths and try to massage her but from there, it went into her brain."

She lamented her daughter's failed dream of making it to the Olympics:

“Bella wanted to be a professional horseback rider, and her dream was to go to the Olympics,” Yolanda Hadid shared. “She’s been on a horse every day of her life since she was two years old. And all of a sudden she jumped 4-foot-5 courses and you need to have a very sharp brain in order to do the calculations. And she started making mistakes. All of a sudden instead of a six stride, she was trying to do it in a four stride or a seven stride and big accidents started happening,” she added.

People Magazine has cited the CDC in reporting that Lyme disease is caused by the Borrelia bacteria, which are usually transmitted through ticks. It typically results in neurological complications, with symptoms like

"numbness, pain, weakness, facial palsy/droop (paralysis of the facial muscles), visual disturbances, and meningitis symptoms such as fever, stiff neck, and severe headache."

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