Bijou Phillips is recovering after receiving a kidney transplant last week.
The 46-year-old model and actress shared a health update on Tuesday, writing on Instagram that her brother Aron Wilson entered a kidney exchange program and donated an organ to save another patient. She then found a match through the same program a few weeks later.
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It was the second kidney transplant for the Almost Famous actress, the ex-wife of disgraced actor Danny Masterson. She received her first transplant from a friend in 2017, but after eight years she suffered cellular and antibody rejection triggered by the BK virus and was forced to go back on dialysis.
She shared that news in February, when she publicly pleaded for help finding a kidney. She said she was born with underdeveloped kidneys and spent the first three months of her life in the NICU on dialysis.
“I need help finding a kidney,” she said at the time. “I’m asking as a friend, a sister, an aunt, and most important, a single mother to an incredible and brave daughter.” She shares an 11-year-old daughter, Fianna, with Masterson.
In her celebratory post-op health update on Tuesday, Phillips thanked her brother and everyone who has helped her over the past few months.
“I am beyond beyond grateful to everyone who rushed into help me, get checked to donate, you are all hero’s (sic)!” she began. “My wonderful brother donated in the kidney exchange! He saved a life, and the life he saved had a special person donate for them, and then a few weeks later! The voucher program found me a perfect match! So close it’s like I got the kidney from one of my parents,” she shared alongside photos from the hospital.
She thanked her surgeon, other doctors, nurses and medical staff at UCLA before thanking her brother once again. “Love you Aron! Thank you the most!”
Masteron, 50, is currently serving a prison sentence of 30 years to life on two rape convictions. At the time of Phillips’ first transplant in 2017, Masterson shared a photo of them holding hands in hospital beds after Phillips’ surgery.
“My lady has been slowing (sic) dying for the past 7 years of an incurable kidney disease,” he wrote at the time. “She was given the gift of an encore by a tall angel. Our daughter will have a mother. We do not take lightly how incredibly fortunate we are. 100% successful transplant.”
Phillips filed for divorce from Masterson in September 2023 after nearly 12 years of marriage.
