6 Celebrities Open Up About Life With Psoriatic Arthritis

Kim Kardashian manages to stay in the spotlight 24/7 as a model, reality TV star, prison-reform advocate, and mom to four kids with ex-husband Ye (Kanye West). While her life can seem impossibly glam, she stays relatable to her audience by opening up about personal struggles, like her battle with psoriatic arthritis.

Writing on her sister Kourtney Kardashian’s blog, Poosh, in 2019, Kardashian said she first noticed her skin flaring up when she was 25, after recovering from a cold. Her mother, Kris Jenner, recognized the skin patches as psoriasis since she herself had coped with the disease for years. Kardashian’s skin symptoms came and went, and disappeared altogether during her pregnancies, but in her thirties she started experiencing episodes of debilitating joint pain.

“I was freaking out. I couldn’t even pick up a toothbrush, my hands hurt so badly,” she wrote on her sister’s blog.

She was initially misdiagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, but says she felt relieved when her condition was confirmed as psoriatic arthritis.

“It’s still painful and scary, but I was happy to have a diagnosis,” she told the Independent in September 2019. “No matter what autoimmune condition I had, I was going to get through it, and they are all manageable with proper care.”

In 2024, Kardashian publicly shared another symptom flare — in this case, a patch of psoriasis on her shin — on social media, writing, “Not gonna lie, this is painful. Not sure what my triggers are. I haven’t changed my diet. I’ve tried everything! Psoriasis sucks.”