Billie Eilish Gets Real About Her Tourette Condition

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| LAST UPDATE 05/26/2022

By Danielle Mejia
billie eilish tourette syndrome
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When it comes to honest celebs, Billie Eilish is as real as it gets. From her straight-from-the-heart lyrics to her vulnerable interviews with the press, the 20-year-old singer's fans know that what they see is what they get. And she kept up the honesty during her recent appearance in a Netflix special.

Billie was featured in David Letterman's My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, where they covered everything from go-karting to Billie's songwriting process. But during the special, the conversation also switched courses to tackle something very personal to Billie: her Tourette syndrome diagnosis. Eilish has known about her condition since her diagnosis at the age of 11 and didn't hold back when opening up when the camera caught one of her tics while rolling. And for those who need a little background info, the syndrome is a condition "[involving] repetitive movements or unwanted sounds (tics) that can't be easily controlled," according to the Mayo Clinic. "If you film me for long enough, you're gonna see lots of tics," the Happier Than Ever singer explained to her host.

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She went on to explain what it's like to experience her tics in public, especially when people are less than sensitive at times. "The most common way that people react is they laugh because they think I'm trying to be funny... and I'm always left incredibly offended by that," Billie confessed. However, despite the ignorance she faces in public, Billie is far from ashamed of her condition and is "very happy talking about it," as she showed in the interview. But as she's come to learn, other celebs with the condition aren't as open. "A couple of artists came forward and said, 'I've actually always had Tourette's,' and I'm not gonna out them because they don't wanna talk about it, but that was actually really interesting to me," Billie explained. The whole conversation shed light on a big part of Eilish's life that is often pushed aside.

"These are things you would never notice if you're just having a conversation with me... but for me, they're very exhausting," she admitted. You can catch the whole segment here... And stay tuned for more updates!

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