Singer and actress LeAnne Rimes has admitted she kept her health issues hidden for years, though she is now much more open with her struggles, including the moment her teeth fell out mid-performance back in June.
Speaking to Us Weekly ahead of her new ABC series 9-1-1: Nashville, which premieres on Thursday (October 9), Rimes confessed, “For so long, it did feel like I was hiding so much of myself. It did allow for the insecurity of thoughts I’ve had in the past about ‘I’m not pretty, I’m not good enough.’”
However, she said she eventually learned “how to love myself through all of my different incarnations.”
In recent years, Rimes has opened up about her mental health and battles with psoriasis, the latter of which she revealed publicly in 2020.
“I remember when I posted the picture of me with psoriasis all over me, and it was such a moment of relief because I had been hiding that for so long,” she told the outlet. “The same with my mental health and now with perimenopause. Every time I talk about it, I set myself — and someone else — free.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Psoriasis is a skin disease that causes a rash with itchy, scaly patches, most commonly on the knees, elbows, trunk and scalp” and is “a common, long-term disease with no cure.”
As for how she’s doing now, the “Can’t Fight The Moonlight” singer said, “I feel great. My physical health has been something I’ve focused on the past few years, and preparing my body for the changes it’s going through.”
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While she feels good, Rimes noted, “Going through perimenopause is no joke. But for the most part, I feel really good in my body.”
Alongside the physical struggles, Rimes said there is also a “grief” that comes with perimenopause. “[It’s] not just about not making eggs anymore. That’s a biological piece of us changing. It’s such a deepening of the soul and allowing pieces of us that no longer serve us to fall away.”
She added, “It is such a transformational and beautiful part of life if we know what’s going on with our bodies.”
Rimes’ openness about her health was best exemplified back in June when her dental bridge fell out while she was performing at the Skagit Valley Casino & Resort in Bow, Washington. The Coyote Ugly star told the audience exactly what was happening and later opened up about the situation with her social media followers.
“I you’ve been around, you know I’ve had a lot of dental surgeries, and I have a bridge in the front,” Rimes said in a TikTok video, referring to her years of oral surgeries after her veneers didn’t bond properly. “It fell out in the middle of my song last night.”
She revealed she told the fans in attendance “exactly what was happening” and was “pushing her teeth” back in every couple of lines for the rest of the performance. “There wasn’t a thing I could do about it except either walk off or just hold my teeth in. So, I just ran with it,” she added.
Rimes makes her return to acting in 9-1-1: Nashville, which debuts on Thursday. In the 9-1-1 spinoff, Rimes plays Dixie Bennings, the mother of Hunter McVey‘s bad boy, Blue Bennings.
9-1-1: Nashville, Premieres, Thursday, October 9, 9 pm et, ABC