Musician Justin Bieber has revealed that he’s experiencing “full paralysis” on the right side of his face, as a result of a virus.
The “Peaches” singer, who is currently on his Justice World Tour, originally postponed his Toronto concert dates due to an undisclosed illness.
However, on Friday (10 June), Bieber posted a video on Instagram to show and explain to fans the extent of his ailment, which he has attributed to Ramsay Hunt syndrome. The syndrome is said to occur in people who’ve had chickenpox.
“Hey everyone, Justin here. I wanted to update you guys on what’s been going on,” he began.
“Obviously, as you can probably see from my face, I have this syndrome called Ramsay Hunt syndrome, and it is from this virus that attacks the nerve in my ear and my facial nerves and has caused my face to have paralysis,” he continued.
“As you can see this eye is not blinking,” Bieber said while demonstrating the lack of movement in his right eye. “I can’t smile on this side of my face, this nostril will not move, so there’s full paralysis on this side of my face.”
“So for those who are frustrated by my cancellations of the next shows, I’m just physically, obviously, not capable of doing them,” he explained.
“This is pretty serious as you can see. I wish this wasn’t the case, but obviously, my body’s telling me that I gotta slow down,” Bieber added. “I hope you guys understand and I’ll be using this time to just rest and relax and get back to 100 per cent so that I can do what I was born to do.”
“But in the meantime, this ain’t it,” he quipped. “I gotta go get my rest on, so that I can get my face back to where it’s supposed to be.”
He assured fans: “I’m gonna get better and I’m doing all these facial exercises to get my face back to normal and it will go back to normal, it’s just time and we don’t know much time it’s gonna be.”
The news comes months after wife Hailey Bieber revealed she had a procedure done to close a hole in her heart, following a hospital stay for “stroke-like symptoms”.
The Independent