Brooke Shields opened up about a life-threatening moment during an interview with Glamour. Since her major health emergency, fans of the model and actress want to know how her health is now. To find out how Brooke is doing today, keep reading.
What Happened to Brooke Shields?
The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit alum described her frightening health scare and noted that it was a “full-blown grand mal seizure” and added that “nobody” knew she went through it.
“I was preparing for the show, and I was drinking so much water, and I didn’t know I was low in sodium,” Brooke began while recounting the incident. “I was waiting for an Uber. I get down to the bottom of the steps, and I start evidently looking weird, and [the people I was with] were like, Are you OK?’”
After leaving her house, the people around her asked if she wanted any coffee, which she declined. When others asked her whether she was “all right,” the former child model insisted that she was “great.”
“Then, I walk into the restaurant L’Artusi, and I go to the sommelier who had just taken an hour to watch my run-through,” Brooke said. “I go in, two women come up to me; I don’t know them. Everything starts to go black. Then, my hands drop to my side, and I go headfirst into the wall.”
Glamour’s editor-in-chief Samantha Barry asked Brooke what a grand mal seizure meant, which the Blue Lagoon actress explained, “It means frothing at the mouth, totally blue, trying to swallow my tongue.”
“The next thing I remember, I’m being loaded into an ambulance. I have oxygen on,” Brooke recalled before revealing the surprising celebrity who accompanied her on the way to the hospital. “And Bradley f**king Cooper is sitting next to me holding my hand.”
Brooke’s husband, Chris Henchy, wasn’t able to be with her, so his assistant called Bradley Cooper to be with her. “And then it was like, I walked in with Jesus,” she joked.
“I didn’t have a sense of humor. I couldn’t really get any words out,” the Princeton University graduate pointed out. “But I thought to myself, ‘This is what death must be like.’ You wake up, and Bradley Cooper’s going, ‘I’m going to go to the hospital with you, Brooke,’ and he’s holding my hand. And I’m looking at my hand, I’m looking at Bradley Cooper’s hand in my hand, and I’m like, ‘This is odd and surreal.’”
Once she was seen by medical staff, Brooke recalled begging the doctor to “get [her] better,” but they “thought [her] brain was seizing,” she noted.
“They had catheters; they had IVs. I was stuck,” the New York City native said before revealing how she caught an infection. “And then they put me into ICU, and that’s where I got bronchitis.”
What Led to Brooke Shields’ Grand Mal Seizure?
Brooke was told by doctors that her seizure was caused by “low sodium” intake and by having “too much water.”
“I flooded my system, and I drowned myself,” she explained. “And if you don’t have enough sodium in your blood or urine or your body, you can have a seizure.”
The former Hannah Montana star remembered how some of the male doctors questioned whether she was limiting her salt intake, to which she responded, “You know what? I’ve had it with male doctors. I know you’re all smart — smarter than I am in what you do. But let me just tell you something. I look younger when I’m bloated. If I’m bloated, people think I’ve had Botox. So, as a 58-year-old woman, I’m not limiting my salt, OK? Stop trying to make me a crazy actress or a female that doesn’t know what the f**k they’re doing. I was drinking too much water because I felt dehydrated because I was singing more than I’ve ever sung in my life and doing a show and a podcast.”
As for the doctors’ alleged recommendation? “So, they were just like, ‘Eat potato chips every day,’” Brooke told the publication.
How Is Brooke Shields Feeling Today?
It appears that despite Brooke’s seizure and subsequent bronchitis diagnosis, she is doing well. As one of the most famous A-listers in show business, she is aware of the pressuring body image standards that continue to circulate. However, Brooke prefers to live a healthier lifestyle, she explained.
“I love food and I love alcohol, and I love life and I want to be healthy for my heart,” she added. “I don’t like going to the gym. I like Pilates. That’s where I am. And I am tired of not feeling skinny enough. It’s boring, and it’s a waste of my time.”