Jameela Jamil reveals rare health disorder has left her at ‘death’s door’ and explains she is ‘unable to breathe properly for hours’

The Duchess of Sussex‘s friend Jameela Jamil has revealed that she’s been left at ‘death’s door’ by a rare health disorder.

‘In February, out of nowhere, the upper part of my digestive system slipped and is squishing an important artery from the heart to my digestive system, and it is also crushing down on the blood supply to my kidney,’ the actress and model, 39, said.

‘This has made me so violently ill that I have developed a hiatal hernia in my oesophagus. I can barely eat. I’m in so much pain. I’m so tired and I can’t breathe properly for hours.’

It’s been a tough few months for Jameela, who is pals with Meghan Markle and even appeared on her podcast Archetypes, with the star revealing in October that her ‘body is broken forever’ by societal beauty standards.

Collecting Glamour’s Game Changing Voice Of The Year, she expressed her sadness at the return of ‘heroin chic’ as she gave an impassioned speech on how women are once again ‘suffering and risking our lives’ in the pursuit of the ‘same Snapchat face’.

Urging women and girls to be kinder to themselves, she said: ‘I beg of you, as I stand here with a body broken forever because of what I put it through for our society’s beauty standards… to not sell your old lady self short.’

The Duchess of Sussex’s friend Jameela Jamil (pictured, in January) has revealed that she’s been left at ‘death’s door’ by a rare health disorder

‘In February, out of nowhere, the upper part of my digestive system slipped and is squishing an important artery from the heart to my digestive system’ the actress (pictured, in 2024) said

Jameela began her speech by speaking about the optimism of the 2010s, before sharing her concern that there had been a back track.

The Good Place star said: ‘Boys are encouraged to build their bodies, and build their futures and legacies.

‘While women and girls are starving, injecting and hurting – and sometimes literally dying – for the fastest possible route to the ever-changing, fickle beauty standard.’

‘Why is women’s discomfort and harm still so hyper normalised?’ the actress asked.

In December, Jameela criticised Hollywood’s ‘era of Ozempic heroin chic’ and warned that even super-slim stars are resorting to weight-loss jabs.

The actress, who has publicly documented her own teenage struggles with anorexia, said it ‘has been hard to watch’ already thin stars taking fat jabs ‘to go from slim to super skinny’.

In a post on Instagram – alongside a video of herself eating in a black bikini – she told her nearly four million followers: ‘The amount of people in my industry just taking it to go from slim to super skinny, to finally achieve the obedient waif physique to fit the obedient sample sizes… has been hard to watch. 

‘Especially for those of us who have fought off eating disorders. 

It’s been a tough few months for Jameela, who is pals with Meghan Markle (pictured, in February) and even appeared on her podcast Archetypes

The star revealed in October that her ‘body is broken forever’ by societal beauty standards as she was named Glamour’s Game Changing Voice Of The Year (pictured)

In May, Jameela explained how she had undergone a bone graft before suffering ‘horrendous’ Gastritis after taking post-op antibiotics and pain killers 

She wrote on Instagram: ‘Guess who had a lil emergency operation and a bone graft and took antibiotics and pain killers and woke up with gastritis?!’ 

‘Who are they really doing it for?’

She added: ‘I plan on sitting out this cycle. Curves will come back. They always do. Then they will go away again. Then come back.

‘I’m not playing with my brain, my heart, my bone density, or my metabolism for a trend.’ 

In May, Jameela explained how she had undergone a bone graft before suffering ‘horrendous’ Gastritis after taking post-op antibiotics and pain killers.

She wrote on Instagram: ‘Guess who had a lil emergency operation and a bone graft and took antibiotics and pain killers and woke up with gastritis?!’

The star then asked her followers: ‘Please send me funny animal videos at this horrendous time. Fork everything.’

She captioned the post: ‘Pls send what works for you with gastritis. I have a long haul FLIGHT TODAY.’

‘I’m gonna be Kristen Wiig in bridesmaids,’ she added in reference to the 2011 comedy’s iconic vomiting and diarrhoea scenes.

The model later shared a snap of herself on following a long plane journey with her beloved dog Barold

In April The Mail’s Richard Eden reported that Jameela said: ‘David Bailey literally shouted, cheerfully, “She’s too fat for the dresses – we’ll shoot her naked”.’ 

The Mail’s Richard Eden reported in April that, during a photoshoot for Vogue magazine, celebrated photographer David Bailey allegedly treated Jameela so unkindly that she starved herself for almost a month afterwards. 

‘I was told I was “too fat” to wear the size-zero clothes and had to just hold the dress over me as I stood almost naked in a room full of strangers,’ she said.

‘David Bailey literally shouted, cheerfully, “She’s too fat for the dresses – we’ll shoot her naked”.’

Jameela, who lives in Los Angeles with her musician boyfriend James Blake, 36, added: ‘I don’t think I ate for about three weeks after that.’