Billie Eilish is getting real about living with Tourette syndrome.
The GRAMMY award-winning singer, fashion icon, and dedicated advocate declares that her diagnosis is a big part of what makes her who she is.
She opened up about her neurological disorder to David Letterman on season 4 of his Netflix seres My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. After experience a tic onstage during the interview, Billie stated:
“I’m very happy to talk about it.
If you film me for long enough, you’re gonna see lots of tics.”
The “Bad Guy” singer revealed that she experiences physical tics that are now so frequent that they have just become synonymous with who she is:
“I never don’t tic at all, because the main tics that I do constantly, all day long, are like, I wiggle my ear back and forth and raise my eyebrow and click my jaw … and flex my arm here and flex this arm, flex these muscles. These are things you would never notice if you’re just having a conversation with me, but for me, they’re very exhausting.”
Billie shared that the tics tend to subside when she is focused on something and moving around. This is why the 20-year-old singer does not have tics while performing on stage:
“When I’m moving around, I’m not even ticcing at all.”
Billie’s condition has not stopped her from massive success. But she admits that before she became famous, she felt alone in her diagnosis:
“What’s funny is so many people have it that you would never know.
A couple artists came forward and said, ‘I’ve actually always had Tourette’s.’”
