‘I am incredibly confused by it’: Billie Eilish opens up about Tourette’s Syndrome in new Netflix interview

‘The most common way people react is they laugh, think that I’m trying to be funny’ said Eilish. ‘I’m always left incredibly offended by that’

Louis Chilton
Saturday 21 May 2022 15:42 BST
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Billie Eilish has opened up about living with Tourette’s Syndrome during a new in-depth Netflix interview.

The special, filmed as part of the My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman series, saw the singer-songwriter speak about fame, music and her upbringing with the former late night host.

At one point, a change in the lighting in the room caused Eilish to experience a tic.

“If you film me for long enough, you’re going to see lots of tics,” she said. “I don’t care. It’s really weird, I haven’t talked about it at all.

“The most common way people react is they laugh, [think] that I’m trying to be funny,” she revealed. “And I’m always left incredibly offended by that.”

“What’s funny is so many people have it that you would never know,” she continued, revealing that “a couple of artists have [Tourette’s]”, adding that she wasn’t going to “out them”.

After Letterman expressed concern that the interview setup had exacerbated her condition, Eilish replied: “Not at all.”

“I really love answering questions about it, because it’s very very interesting. And I am incredibly confused by it. I don’t get it.”

Eilish was diagnosed when she was 11 years old, and experienced “small” tics when she was a child.

Billie Eilish on ‘My Next Guest'

“For me, they’re very exhausting,” she said, but added that she had “made friends with it now”.

Also among the six new episodes of My Next Guest were interviews with Will Smith, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Durant and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

The series can be streamed now on Netflix.

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