Lewis Capaldi reveals battle with secret health condition and is learning how to control it
SINGER Lewis Capaldi has been diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome — and is learning to live with the twitches, he has revealed to The Sun.
Lewis, 25, says he has gone public because he does not want his fans to think he has been “taking cocaine or something”.
The star added that he was relieved to discover he had the condition because he feared he might be suffering a degenerative disease.
He is being treated with Botox injections to freeze muscles to try to control the tics characteristic of Tourette’s.
Scot Lewis, who was at No1 for seven weeks with single Someone You Loved, said: “I have been diagnosed with Tourette’s.
“I wanted to speak about it because I didn’t want people to think I was taking cocaine or something.
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“My shoulder twitches when I am excited, happy, nervous or stressed. It is something I am living with.
“It is not as bad as it looks.”
Lewis, whose new single, Forget Me, is expected to go straight to No1 when released on Friday, also spoke directly to his followers about his recent Tourette’s diagnosis.
The star — who surprised fans by stripping down to his undies for an international billboard photoshoot to promote the single — chatted with them in an Instagram Live session.
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The singer, who has not released any new music for three years, said: “It’s a new thing. I haven’t really learnt much about it.
“I got Botox in my shoulder to stop it moving but I’m learning new ways to cope all the time.
“Some days it’s more painful than others, sometimes it’s quite uncomfortable but I guess that’s it.
“When they told me, ‘We think you’ve got Tourette’s’, I was like, ‘Do you know what, that makes so much sense’.
“When I look back at my interviews from 2018 I can see that I’m doing it.”
Lewis, whose debut album Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent was in the Top 10 for a record 77 consecutive weeks, eclipsing Ed Sheeran’s Divide, said that his Tourette’s does not trouble him all the time.
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Capaldi, who was born in Glasgow, said: “It comes and goes. Sometimes I can go months without doing it.
“I thought I had some horrible degenerative disease so I’ll take Tourette’s.”