Andie MacDowell Reveals Health Diagnosis: ‘I Thought I Was Literally Falling Apart’

Andie MacDowell thought she was “falling apart” before being diagnosed with piriformis syndrome. The actress, 66, reunited with her Bad Girls co-star Drew Barrymore on the Thursday, Jan. 23 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show to share how she was worried about needing a hip replacement after riding her Peloton bike “like a crazy person.”

The Four Weddings and a Funeral actress said she was having pain “shooting down [her] leg” before she received her diagnosis and learned that a stationary bike is “not appropriate for my body.” Piriformis syndrome, according to the  National Institutes of Health, occurs when the “piriformis muscle in the buttocks presses on the sciatic nerve” and is “caused by damage, irritation or overuse of the piriformis muscle which can make the muscle swell or tighten.”

“I ended up with bad knees and a bad hip and … I thought I was literally falling apart, like I was gonna have to get new pieces,” MacDowell said, as per USA Today. “But the good news is my pieces are fine. My knees are good except for aging. They’ve aged. I’m working out really hard now doing PT. I’m not falling apart.”

She continued of her treatment, “Thank God my hips are fine. I have to work my tiny little bottom and my hips. I have to work the bottom and work my hip. I just do it every day. And it doesn’t hurt anymore. It’s a miracle. It really is.”

The Maid actress also spoke to Barrymore about opening a new chapter for herself in her late 60s after receiving some advice from her daughter, 30-year-old actress Margaret Qualley. “Once my kids left, I felt this huge void in my life because they were so important to me,” said the mother of three, who also shares daughter Rainey, 35, and son Justin, 38, with ex-husband Paul Qualley. “Margaret was really telling me I was supposed to be having the time of my life, but I wasn’t.”

Since moving from Hollywood to South Carolina, where she lives in “a community that has a lot of people my age,” the Groundhog Day star is “happier now than I have been in a long time.” She joked, “Margaret basically told me I needed to get a life. She was right. I do have a life now. I created a life. I figured it out; you know, it took me a while.” The Ready or Not star added, “I’m having the time of my life now. It’s really good.”