LeAnn Rimes – “When I look at these photos, I see so much more than my skin,” the singer said.
The 38-year-old singer was diagnosed with an immune-related skin disease at just two years old, and by the age of 6, “around 80% of my body was covered in painful red patches – all but my hands and feet and face, ‘she wrote in an essay for Glamor.
Rimes lived most of her young life trying to correct her medical condition with steroid creams, drugs, and experimental treatments and covered himself with clothing layers to hide his skin.
“Underneath my shirt, my whole stomach would be covered in thick scales that would hurt and bleed. For so much of my life, I felt like I had to hide,” she said. “… Nobody mentioned this. And certainly not when I signed my first record deal at 11. In the world we lived in, our “flaws” were not brought to the fore. “
The “One Way Ticket” singer finally found an effective treatment for her psoriasis in her twenties, and her skin calmed to the point where she felt comfortable stopping the medication there. About two and a half years ago. But all that failed in 2020.
“All hell broke loose in the world — and inside of me, as I’m sure it did for so many other people amid this pandemic,” she wrote. “Suddenly, I went from doing what I love and being surrounded by people to just hanging around the house in sweats. Stress is a common trigger for psoriasis, and with so much uncertainty happening, my flare-ups came right back.”
This time, however, Rimes has decided not to go into hiding. She first revealed in 2008 that she had psoriasis, but her skin was calm at the time, and people thought she was ‘making it up’. And Rimes wasn’t ready to show off the rough patches of psoriasis at the time.
“Even though I’ve opened up, I’ve still kept hidden,” she said. “And when you’re hiding your physical body, there’s so much that rolls over into your emotional and spiritual mental health. You feel like you’re holding yourself back — like you’ve been caged in.”
“Maybe it’s the fact that this year has really put things into perspective, but I now feel like I’m at a point in my life where I just want to break out of that cage,” she said. “We’re at the moment in time right now when we’re all being stripped of everything we thought we needed — and now we can see how worthy and good enough we are without all of the bulls—.”
Rimes decided to pose nude and show her psoriasis in honor of World Psoriasis Day.
“You know when you say something you’ve been holding in for so long, and it’s such a sigh of relief? That’s what these photos are to me. I needed this. My whole body — my mind, my spirit — needed this desperately,” she said. “When I look at these photos, I see so much more than my skin.”
After sharing her story on Glamor and Instagram, Rimes thanked her fans for the “overwhelming outpouring of love”.
“Know that you’re not alone,” she said on her Instagram Story. “That was my main reason for wanting to share something so vulnerable, because so many people are struggling, and do struggle with psoriasis among so many other things. Just know that you are loved, and you are worthy, as I tell myself the same thing over and over again.”
