Billie Eilish is opening up about her experience with Tourette syndrome, sharing that her diagnosis is both a part of who she is and also “exhausting” at the end of the day. The “Bad Guy” singer, 20, was diagnosed with the neurological disorder at age 11 and tells David Letterman on Season 4 of his Netflix series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, that she has no issue with sharing details of its impact on her life.
“I’m very happy to talk about it,” Billie assured Letterman after experiencing a tic during the interview. “If you film me for long enough, you’re gonna see lots of tics.” The Grammy winner said that the physical tics she experiences are so frequent that no one would even notice them, but that they do have an impact on her. “I never don’t tic at all, because the main tics that I do constantly, all day long, are like, I wiggle my ear back and forth and raise my eyebrow and click my jaw … and flex my arm here and flex this arm, flex these muscles,” she shared. “These are things you would never notice if you’re just having a conversation with me, but for me, they’re very exhausting.”
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The “Happier Than Ever” artist continued that her tics are less prevalent when she is focusing on something and being active, which is why she doesn’t experience them while performing on stage. “When I’m moving around, I’m not even ticcing at all,” she explained. Tourette syndrome is actually more common than people might think in the performance community, Eilish revealed, although she hesitated to “out” some of the artists she knows who have the same diagnosis.
“What’s funny is so many people have it that you would never know,” Eilish said. “A couple artists came forward and said, ‘I’ve actually always had Tourette’s.’” Being famous, the musician revealed she actually feels less alone in her diagnosis than before she entered the spotlight. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t get hurtful reactions from some people when she speaks about having Tourette syndrome. “The most common way people react is they laugh, [think] that I’m trying to be funny,” she told Letterman. “And I’m always left incredibly offended by that.” David Letterman’s celebrity interview seriesย My Next Guest Needs No Introduction is currently streaming on Netflix.ย
