Even with all the resources in the world at the tips of their fingers — doctors, masseuses, personal trainers, in-home chefs, and private jets to fly them around to globe to consult with any such individual — celebrities, like the average person, struggle with the unrelenting pain that comes with migraine attacks.
Those who have never experienced the neurological condition usually think of migraines as severe headaches. While the pain from a migraine can be absolutely head-splitting, there are a variety of additional symptoms associated with the condition beyond debilitating pain, including loss of vision, nausea, and vertigo.
Some people who suffer from migraines even experience three distinct phases when an attack occurs: the prodrome phase, which includes fatigue, trouble sleeping, and sensitivity to light and/or sound in the days or hours leading up to a migraine; the aura, during which there are changes to vision (such as seeing sun spots) in the 30-60 minutes prior to an attack fully unfurling, and the postdrome phase, which leaves sufferers drained even after the pain fades.
While there are preventative measures and ways to provide relief from an attack, there’s no cure for migraines — a condition 1 in every 7 people around the world suffer from. Because of this, celebrities can only do so much about their own migraine attacks, even with their unlimited access to top resources and experts. In fact, the lifestyle of famous individuals, from actors to athletes, can actually exacerbate migraine attacks.
Thanks to unpredictable travel schedules through multiple time zones, long days spent rehearsing, at practice, or on set, venues filled with high-decibel noise, and the stress of constant public scrutiny, celebrities who experience chronic migraines are worse for the wear because of their line of work. While most people would find a quiet, dark room to go sleep in when a migraine hits, famous folks don’t always have that as an option due to their unique and demanding schedules.
From former racecar driver Danica Patrick and Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth to former Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis and country music singer Jessie James Decker, scroll on to read about a variety of migraine experiences from celebrities of many backgrounds.
Kristin Chenoweth
At the 2019 World Migraine Summit, Kristin Chenoweth recalled her first encounter with a migraine when she was 25 years old. “I started getting what I call ‘kaleidoscope eyes.’ Then I started getting really nauseous and a pounding headache,” the Broadway star explained.
In the three decades since, Chenoweth shared that her doctors have recommended she avoid sugar and caffeine, which she said has made a difference. She added, “Alcohol is another big one and you’re just not going to see me drinking that much. I’m going to try to do everything I can to help myself.”
The Wicked icon touched on one area she struggles with: “The dragon that I keep chasing is sleep,” she explained. “I’m always in a different time zone or on a plane. None of these things are conducive to a person who has a migraine. That’s been my biggest challenge, sleep.”
Chenoweth told HuffPost in 2019 that in addition to cutting out sugar, alcohol, and caffeine and trying to maintain a healthy sleep schedule, she also finds breathing exercises, avoiding bright lights and screens, wearing sunglasses indoors, and staying as hydrated as possible help her minimize the severity of her migraine pain.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow explained how debilitating migraines can feel in her cookbook, It’s All Good. The actress wrote, “One sunny afternoon in London, in the spring of 2011, I thought — without sounding overly dramatic — that I was going to die.”
Paltrow continued, “I had just served lunch in the garden at home … I had a vague feeling that I was going to faint, and I wasn’t forming thoughts correctly. I got a searing pain in my head, I couldn’t speak, and I felt as if I couldn’t breathe,” she described. “I thought I was having a stroke.”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe star explained that through her diet, she was able to manage her migraine symptoms, and thus her cookbook was born in an effort to help people identify their own dietary sensitivities and triggers.
Serena Williams
Serena Williams began experiencing routine migraine attacks in her 20s during tennis matches. Of playing through the pain, the iconic athlete told PEOPLE in 2020, “Migraine isn’t a knee injury — it’s something you can’t physically see. You can’t really say, ‘Oh, Dad, I have a migraine. I’m going to stop playing.’”
Williams continued, “People are like, ‘I don’t see swelling. I don’t see bruising. Tough it out.’ I got used to playing through the pain.” She added, “You can’t go into a press conference with the media asking, ‘Well, what happened?’ and say ‘Well I had a migraine attack.’ I had to figure out a way to work through it.”
After her migraines began impacting her ability to care for her daughter during the COVID-19 pandemic, Williams consulted with her doctor, who prescribed her Ubrelvy. The migraine medication has worked so well for the tennis star, she signed on to be a spokesperson for the brand to help other migraine sufferers find relief.
Khloé Kardashian
Khloé Kardashian experienced her first migraine at 12 years old and was diagnosed four years later at 16. During a 2020 interview with Prevention, the Good American co-founder recalled, “I vividly remember how I felt, but mainly I remember how everyone told me that I wasn’t feeling what I felt.”
Kardashian explained, “People would always say, ‘Oh, it’s just a headache.’ That’s the stigma with migraines: that it’s just a headache. And being 12 years old, and at that time no one in my family experienced migraines, I was embarrassed to say when I was suffering from one,” she shared.
The mom of two added that taking care of her daughter, True, while she experienced migraines during the pandemic was extremely difficult and guilt-inducing. “You’re alone with your kid and you have no real support system,” Kardashian said.
“[True] is just 2, so it’s not like she’s going to remember, ‘My mom was a bad mom and laid on the floor while I was playing,'” The Kardashians star continued. “But there have been times when I’m in her playroom and have a migraine, and I will just lay on the floor. She’ll say, ‘Mommy, play,’ and I can’t explain to her that I can’t. I just put guilt on myself. I think any new mom would do that,” she said.
Whoopi Goldberg
In 2021, Whoopi Goldberg told SELF that the migraines she suffered from for 40 years were “like a monster that would show up in your house whenever it felt like it and there was nothing you could do about it.”
The View co-host, who noted that she can tell when she’s going to get a migraine from an aura spot that looks like a “strip of silver aluminum foil,” explained how anxiety-inducing migraines can be. “You start to get one and [wonder], is the whole day going to be shot? How do I explain to somebody that I’m in the middle of doing this and I should probably stop? I just want to go in the bed, I just want to go in the closet, but you gotta power through,” she said.
The Sister Act actress explained that the prescription drug Nurtec ODT was the first thing that worked to relieve her migraine pain. “It made me kind of want to cry or break into song, one of the two, because it was such a relief.”
Tori Spelling
On the set of Beverly Hills, 90210, Tori Spelling experienced her first migraine — and she’s battled the condition for nearly three decades since.
The actress was hospitalized for the condition in 2011, 2014, and 2015, and she explained during a 2020 appearance on Las Vegas Morning Blend that Nurtec OTD is the only medication she’s tried that’s worked to combat her migraine attacks.
“The fact that I can go back to my life, I can be present again … [Nurtec OTD] was a total game changer because I was able to bounce back from a migraine, which is something I have not said in 25 years,” Spelling said.
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow told PEOPLE in 1996 that as a kid, “a day of excitement and eating would always end in a horrible headache.”
The Friends alum’s experience with chronic migraines from a young age inspired her dad to become a renowned clinical researcher studying the condition, her brother to become a neurologist with a specialty in headache medicine, and she herself to each a degree in biology from Vassar College and co-author a research paper on migraines and cluster headaches.
Jessie James Decker
During a 2021 interview with PEOPLE, Jessie James Decker recalled the sensation of the migraines she first started experiencing in middle school. “It felt like little bugs were biting the left side of my scalp and my eye would burn. It would just be like the most severe pain ever, but it would sometimes only be in certain spots of my head,” the country musician explained.
As she got older, her migraines got worse — to the point that her husband, former Denver Broncos wide receiver Eric Decker, convinced her to see a specialist about the condition.
“I was worried that I had like a sort of aneurysm just waiting to happen,” the “Lights Down Low” singer shared. “I just kept having all these different fears because they were getting worse. So I went in and I had tons of testing done.”
Decker was told by her doctor that she’s part of just 4% of the global population that experiences migraines on such a severe level, and for the cookbook author, chronic migraines have also caused her to have TMJ and intense neck pain.
The Kittenish founder said ibuprofen, essential oils, neck stretches, warm baths with Epsom salt, and cold compresses on her neck help her combat attacks. “The main thing you have to do is just rest and relax,” Decker explained. “I’ve gone to different doctors that have tried to give me heavier pain medication, but I don’t want to do that. It’s just not my thing. And so I just kind of have to fight through it,” she said.
Terrell Davis
Former Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis fought through a migraine to help his NFL team win the 1998 Super Bowl, and nearly 20 years later, he spoke on the experience at the 2019 World Migraine Summit.
Davis recalled that he had his first migraine at just 9 years old during football practice. “I remember my heart started pounding because I thought, at the time, I was going to go blind,” the Hall of Famer explained. “That headache was so different than any headache I’ve ever had at the time. It was so debilitating, so intense.”
After he was diagnosed as a kid, Davis explained that it took years of trying different things to create an effective prevention plan for his migraine attacks. Today, he credits his preventative medication, a healthy diet, and CBD products as the tools he uses to keep his migraines at bay.
Although he had to fight through an attack to play in and help win the ’98 Super Bowl after he accidentally forgot to take his medication prior to the game, the Broncos alum has a positive outlook on the experience.
“By this happening to me on such a public forum, it was also a tool to affect other people’s lives in a way that I didn’t realize,” he explained. “Most of the fan mail [I got was] talking about migraines and thanking me for bringing this thing to the forefront.”
Danica Patrick
Motor-racing icon Danica Patrick began experiencing migraines when she was 33, and race days seemed to be a trigger for her. The former IndyCar driver told PEOPLE in 2017, “My series of triggers seem to be after a race on Sunday nights through Tuesday, so they’re kind of about a 48-hour window.”
Patrick added, “They’re not necessarily every weekend, but when they come on, they’re awful. There’s plenty of Tuesday mornings when I get up and I feel awful; I feel nauseous and I’m on the couch all day.” Of her partnership with Excedrin, she said, “It’s a good opportunity to use my experience to help people understand how bad they are.”
Aly Raisman
Aly Raisman has been experiencing migraines since she was a teen, but she didn’t realize that was what the pain was until she was in her 20s.
The Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast told PEOPLE in 2021, “There were many times I was training or competing when I had my hair up in a really tight bun and I had such sensitivity on my scalp. I always thought I was getting a hair headache, but it’s actually a symptom of a migraine,” she explained.
Other symptoms she experienced included nausea, fatigue, light sensitivity, and neck pain, which she also didn’t recognize as migraine symptoms. “When I was finally diagnosed, it was validating,” Raisman shared.
She continued, “I didn’t know why I was feeling that way for so long. It’s frustrating not to have the answers. Knowledge is power, and being able to advocate for ourselves, being able to find a neurologist to listen to me — I’m very grateful for that,” the athlete said before encouraging others to consult with a doctor as well. “It’s important to be our own advocate and get those answers. We all deserve to feel good,” she asserted.
Whitney Port
Whitney Port spoke with Hollywood Life in 2019 about her partnership with Excedrin, sharing, “I’ve had headaches since I was a little girl that developed over time into frequent migraines.”
The Hills alum explained, “When I get a migraine, I will usually wake up to a throbbing pain that feels like someone is hitting me on the head over and over again.” She noted that migraines can have a big impact on her productivity and ability to care for her son, saying, “Migraines make me feel like I can’t be present with him, play with him, or sometimes even just have patience with him.”
Port shared that the only way she’s able to zap a migraine is by taking Excedrin. “[It’s] the one thing I found that really works for me to get relief fast so I don’t miss those special moments with him.”
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