Shailene Woodley may be well known for her rise to superstardom as Tris in the Divergent franchise, but what fans may not realize is that behind the scenes, the actress was suffering from serious health issues.
Woodley, 32, has been vocal about the condition of her health in the past, but she recently went into detail about her mysterious ailments and how she was able to overcome them.
On the Tuesday, September 24 episode of She MD with Mary Alice Haney and Dr. Thais Aliabadi, Ferrari actress spoke about her difficult situation, saying, “I was losing my hearing. I couldn’t walk for longer than five minutes at a time without having to lay down for hours and hours and hours and sleep. Everything I ate hurt my stomach.” Woodley later added that “It was this conflation of issues and diagnosis and different doctors telling me different things.”
Shailene Woodley speaks onstage during the 2024 TIME100 Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2024 in New York City. Woodley went into detail about the mystery health issues that caused her to lose her hearing.
Getty Images for TIME/Jemal Countess
The Big Little Lies star discussed her background in holistic medicine and herbalism and how it affected her healing process, admitting, “I was very keen on working with real MDs and I’m also going to work with independent kind of healers.” She shared that she was “just trying to search for some sense of comfort in my own skin,” noting that it took “about a decade of unwinding and healing and getting healthy.”
The California native also spoke about the effects her physical ailments had on her mental state, explaining, “The path for me alongside with the physical healing was acknowledging the mental of the healing process for myself which involved looking at real traumas and real PTSD that I had experienced,” adding that “they definitely took a toll on my body and took a toll emotionally which then got stuck in my body and affected me.”
At the end of the interview, Woodley happily shared, “It was a journey that ultimately physically resolved itself and I am, I got really healthy. I’m so happy to be able to say that.”
