8 Celebrities Who Had Preeclampsia

The maternal health crisis remains one of the most serious health issues facing the US, and Black women continue to take the brunt of it. According to CDC statistics, pregnancy-related deaths in the US have more than quadrupled since 1987, and a 2021 study found that Black women are three times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than white women. That study also found that the leading causes of pregnancy-related death for Black women are two related blood pressure disorders called preeclampsia and eclampsia. Even wealthy and famous Black women have faced these potentially deadly disorders, including celebrities like Beyoncé, Allyson Felix, and Mariah Carey.

Preeclampsia is a prenatal high blood pressure disorder and the precursor to eclampsia, a high blood pressure condition that can cause seizures and contribute to heart disease, per Mayo Clinic. Symptoms of preeclampsia include high blood pressure, proteinuria (excess protein in urine), and organ damage including to the liver and kidneys. Careful monitoring and management can keep moms and fetuses safe when preeclampsia occurs, but if left untreated, the condition can also cause complications well into pregnancy and weeks after birth, some of which can be fatal.

While preeclampsia can affect any pregnant person, it is five times more likely to be fatal for Black women compared to white women, per the 2021 study. Those statistics are seriously concerning, which is why medical experts are working hard to address this crisis. In the last year, scientists have identified a new diagnostic test for preeclampsia and a potential new treatment. While research continues, speaking up and raising awareness about the condition is vital. The following celebrities have all had preeclampsia during pregnancy and are doing just that. Keep reading to see what they’ve said about their experiences with preeclampsia.

Beyoncé

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Beyoncé developed preeclampsia while pregnant with her twins Rumi and Sir. By the time she gave birth, in June 2017, she was “swollen” and had been on bed rest for over a month, the singer wrote in a 2018 essay for Vogue. Beyoncé had an emergency C-section and she and her twins spent “many weeks” in the NICU. “I was in survival mode and did not grasp it all until months later,” she wrote.
Kim Kardashian

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Kim Kardashian suffered from preeclampsia while pregnant with her two eldest kids, North and Saint. In a 2019 Instagram video, Kardashian described how she was induced at 34 and a half weeks with North and later dealt with placenta accreta, which occurs when the placenta grows into the uterine wall and remains attached after childbirth, according to Penn Medicine. She experienced the same complications when giving birth to Saint in 2015 and had to undergo five different operations in the year and a half after delivery “to fix the damage that all of that did.”

Kardashian, who had her subsequent children via surrogate, has also opened up being body-shamed while pregnant with North. The preeclampsia made her “swell uncontrollably,” the reality star said, leading her to gain 60 pounds. “I cried every single day over what was happening to my body mainly from the pressures of being constantly compared to what society considered a healthy pregnant person should look like,” Kardashian wrote in an Instagram story in 2021, per People. She said she felt “so insecure” and that the experience “really broke me,” and called for an end to the “bullying” behavior she experienced. “You just never fully know what someone is going through behind the scenes and I’ve learned through my own experiences that it’s always better to lead with kindness,” Kardashian said.
Mariah Carey

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Mariah Carey had a difficult pregnancy before delivering her twins, Monroe and Moroccan, with then-husband Nick Cannon in 2011. “I don’t think I understood the enormity and the magnitude of what it does to your body,” she said in a 20/20 interview later that year. The star experienced gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, resulting in long periods of bed rest, false labors, and emergency hospital trips. “I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to walk properly again,” Carey explained. “I would sit and someone would need to help me up.”
Allyson Felix

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As a highly decorated track athlete, Allyson Felix went into her first pregnancy feeling confident and strong, even continuing to train and work out as the weeks progressed. It wasn’t until a doctor noticed high blood pressure and high levels of protein in her urine during a routine appointment that Felix found out something was wrong, she said in a CDC video. “I’d kind of heard of the statistics of Black women being more at risk for complications, but being a professional athlete, I never imagined myself in this situation,” the Olympic gold medalist said.

She was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia at 32 weeks and immediately underwent an emergency C-section. “It was just a really scary, tough situation but I feel so blessed that I came out on the other side of it,” Felix said. “There are so many women who do not walk out of the hospital.” She’s shared her story widely in hopes of helping other pregnant people be aware of their risk. “I really want women just to be aware, to know that they’re at risk, to have a plan in place,” she explained. “To not be intimidated in doctors’ office, to be heard, to be persistent about anything that does not feel normal… I didn’t feel prepared or educated, and I do not want anyone else to feel that way.”
Adriana Lima

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Adriana Lima gave birth to her oldest daughter, Valentina, in 2009 and struggled with preeclampsia during the pregnancy. She was put on bed rest for two weeks before delivering Valentina at just 34 weeks, per People. At 4.4 pounds, her daughter was the “smallest [baby] in the whole hospital,” Lima said at the time. The pregnancy itself was emotionally difficult for the Victoria’s Secret model. “As a parent you really want to give your best and you don’t want [anything] to happen with the baby, so it was stressful,” Lima said.
Laura Bush

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Laura and George W. Bush struggled with fertility for five years before Laura became pregnant with twins Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush. While both Bushes were “elated” about the pregnancy, Jenna wrote in a 2015 essay for Today, the experience was difficult. The future First Lady was put on bed rest while suffering from preeclampsia and, with her liver failing, had an emergency C-section six weeks before her due date. When both girls were born healthy, Laura “felt so grateful and so lucky,” Jenna wrote.
Trista Sutter

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Sutter, best known as the first Bachelorette, experienced preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome during her first pregnancy in 2007. (HELLP syndrome, which stands for Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, and Low Platelet count, is a rare pregnancy condition which is classified as a type of preeclampsia, per Cleveland Clinic.) The reality star was diagnosed late in her pregnancy, at the beginning of her ninth month, when extreme nausea and pain forced her to go to the hospital. There, doctors identified protein in her urine and elevated blood pressure.

“The risks are seizures and coma, so they kept me overnight for observation,” Sutter said later that way, per Us Weekly via Fox News. “I can’t remember much of the next day. My liver was failing. The only cure for HELLP syndrome is to have the baby, so they induced me.” Sutter remembered feeling “scared and shocked,” and as her condition deteriorated, Trista underwent a C-section. “Eventually we said if Trista’s health is deteriorating and we’re jeopardizing the baby’s health, then do what you have to do,” Ryan said.
Scheana Shay

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Reality star Scheana Shay of Vanderpump Rules had the rare experience of being diagnosed with preeclampsia after giving birth. It happened after she had her daughter, Summer Moon, in 2021. Nearly 24 hours after being induced, Shay wrote on Instagram, her blood pressure was extremely high and doctors diagnosed her with preeclampsia, which then progressed to HELLP syndrome. “My doctor said I was lucky, and we caught this just in time to treat,” Shay wrote. She was put on a magnesium drip that ade her feel “extremely lethargic and flu-like,” including intense shivers.