Yolanda Hadid shares new revelations about her life particularly her health journey, on her memoir, Believe Me: My Battle With the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease, ET reports.
The famous mother of Gigi, Bella, and Anwar Hadid, had opened her life in front of millions in the show Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. But in her new book, Yolanda addresses her battle with Lyme disease as well as her marital struggles with David Foster.
Here are the seven things we learned from her memoir:
She joined the Real Housewives Franchise for Financial Reasons
Yolanda’s then-husband, David Foster, is one of the wealthiest men in the music industry, but the two kept their finances separate. The supermodel says David preferred it that way after some battles over money in his three previous marriages.
“I married David for love and not to be taken care of,” she says. “I understand he’s sensitive around finances. Of course, he doesn’t want to provide for my children. That’s Mohamed’s job and my job and exactly the reason why I am very driven to keep working.”
Yolanda signed a four-year contract with Bravo, with six-figure salary per season on the show. She had big plans to launch a “romance product line,” featuring candles, greeting cards and a flower service. The project never came to completion because her focus turned solely to her Lyme battle.
She realized something is wrong with her during the filming of Housewives.
Yolanda didn’t know yet she was battling Lyme disease when she started filming the show in 2012. In fact, she still doesn’t know how she got it, as it could have been in her system since childhood. In the book, it was revealed that several members of her family including her kids, Anwar and Bella, also struggled with the disease. During filming, the 53-year-old star started having issues with thinking clearly and finding words she want to express. It was the time when she had a major fight with co-star Taylor Armstrong that she realized something was wrong.
“Out of desperation, I blurt out, ‘You are such an a**hole,'” she says. “I stun myself. Because my first language isn’t English, I’m extremely conscious of the words I choose … It’s the moment that shakes and wakes me up. Something is really wrong with me.”
She quit the show due to her health issues
Yolanda says that she turned down the offer when Bravo asked her to return for a fifth season of Housewives. She realized that “money can’t buy the health and happiness I deserve,” citing the constant fighting as “toxic,” and that the show no longer resonates with who she is.
“I also struggle with the way the show exposes my children’s lives,” she shares. “Gigi’s and Bella’s careers have taken off with the speed of lightning and they’ve lost a lot of their freedom as a result. Our home should be a private, safe place to anchor and recharge their batteries.”
The mother of three recalls the heartache she felt through all the Munchausen talk, calling out the women for talking behind her back. Yolanda reveals that she never considered any of her co-stars to be her “real friends.”
There are several occasions when Yolanda barely had enough energy to get out of bed. She remembers the lack of empathy among her co-stars.
“I’m having a really bad day with that earth-pulling exhaustion, where I can’t even put one foot in front of the other. Rather than go into Kyle’s house, where all the girls are doing hair and makeup, I choose to lie down in the backseat of the car to conserve my energy until they’re ready for me on set,” she explains. “It’s strange to me, because if someone was sitting in my driveway and not feeling well, I would go out and say, ‘How are you? Why don’t you come into the house, take the guest room, and relax until we start?'” Brandi Glanville was the only castmate who came outside to see her.
She discovered other diseases and tried anything to help with her Lyme disease
At 13 years old, Yolanda was diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus followed by bouts with hepatitis. As she met with several doctors over the course of her Lyme treatments, she discovered other infections, from metal poisoning, bacterial infections and loose silicone in her lymph nodes. Yolanda says her breast implants was the source of the leaked silicone, her “No. 1 screw-up,” health-wise.
She also learned that her intestines were riddled with parasites. She made the discovery during a colonic, a routine part of her Lyme treatments.
“We see a huge creature, about sixteen inches long and so wide that it fills the entire circumference of the [irrigation] tube moving through in perfect slow motion,” she shares. “I can’t believe that big fat monster that just came out of my a**!”
She kept a detailed health diary, documenting the years of medical tests, procedures and medications she has tried while battling Lyme. She began a chemotherapy-like pill regimen, which required her to take 150 different tablets a day, tried magic mushrooms and medicinal marijuana, took up smoking raw tobacco, and even a combination of ayahuasca and frog venom.
“This is definitely an intense experience,” she writes. “But I am always enchanted by the thought of a cure.”
She felt “empty” in her marriage to David Foster
As soon as her Lyme symptoms started, Yolanda reveals that there was a strain in her relationship with David, but he stood by her for the most part until 2014, when their marriage began to crack.
“How do I all of a sudden feel trapped by the most quality human being in my life?” she says. “I feel empty and lost all drive to try to fix all the issues that have broken our bond.”
Yolanda says she was committed to David, through sickness and health, and wanted to make things work. A little over a year later, in November of 2015, Yolanda reveals David told her, “I can’t do this anymore,” that her “sick card is up” and that the marriage is over.
“After having a front-row seat to my journey, he’s actually saying that I used a SICK CARD? Who is he talking to? Who is influencing him? How did he come up with such an unkind statement? I don’t deserve this,” Yolanda says. “If roles were reversed and David was sick, I would stick by him.”
She became friends with Avril Lavigne
When Avril Lavigne was diagnosed with Lyme disease,Yolanda was more than open to reach out and share her story.
“One day Avril stops by my house with her mom for a cup of tea. Her light sensitivity from Lyme is so severe that she can’t even take her sunglasses off when we are sitting in the living room, even though my blinds are closed,” Yolanda shares. “Avril’s mother has been taking care of her, and I can see the fear in her eyes.”
She sold her Malibu home because of her Lyme disease
Yolanda announced she was putting her Malibu home, that became a character of its own on RHOBH show, on the market. She admits she didn’t want to leave her house but she had to.
“Its magnitude and the overwhelming responsibilities that come with running it are more than I can handle,” she shares. “We have help, but I’m still in charge of it all. The beautiful lemon orchard and rose gardens that I used to love tending to are not monsters of pressure. Not only do I feel trapped in my brain, I also feel trapped in this big, beautiful house.”
She says she no longer cares about material possession, just about getting better and finding a cure for Lyme, which she considers the greatest global epidemic of our time.
Believe Me: My Battle With the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease is available at bookstores everywhere today.
