Entertainment
VIDEO: Justin Bieber reveals he is suffering from facial paralysis, cancels shows
28 year old Canada-born Singer Justin Bieber has revealed he is suffering from partial facial paralysis which makes it hard for him to perform his music.
Bieber, who has canceled all his shows, said in an Instagram video that the condition is due to a diagnosis of Ramsay Hunt syndrome.
“As you can see this eye is not blinking. I can’t smile on this side of my face… So there’s full paralysis on this side of my face,” he said.
Medical experts say Ramsay Hunt syndrome occurs when a shingles outbreak affects the facial nerve near someone’s ears.
“It is from this virus that attacks the nerve in my ear and my facial nerves and has caused my face to have paralysis,” the singer said in the three-minute video, indicating the right side of his face.
“This is pretty serious, as you can see. I wish this wasn’t the case, but, obviously, my body’s telling me I’ve got to slow down,” he said. “I hope you guys understand. I’ll be using this time to just rest and relax and get back to a hundred percent so that I can do what I was born to do.”
He also smiled and blinked, showing his 240 million followers how the right side of his face did not move.
Earlier this week, Bieber’s Justice World Tour – which began in February – announced three shows would be postponed.
Bieber added that he has been doing facial exercises to “get back to normal”, but that he does not know how long it will take to recover.
The inability for patients to close one eyelid can also cause eye pain and blurred vision, the organisation says, adding that it is most common in people over 60 years old.
In March, the singer’s wife, Hailey Bieber, was admitted to hospital due to a blood clot in her brain.
She later said she had suffered a stroke and had undergone surgery to close a hole in her heart.
Bieber had been scheduled to perform in Washington DC and Toronto earlier this week, with concerts also planned in New York and Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
