Courtney Love is opening up about a terrifying chapter she kept largely out of the spotlight - revealing that she became so sick after moving to London that doctors warned she might die.
The 62-year-old Hole rocker dropped the bombshell in a candid Instagram video while explaining why she's taking a temporary break from social media. But what started as an update for fans quickly became a startling account of the health nightmare she says began after she relocated from Los Angeles to England in 2019.
"My body just exploded," Love recalled, saying she was constantly in and out of hospitals as doctors struggled with her deteriorating condition.
According to Love, things became frighteningly serious. She said she lost her hair, plunged to around 100 pounds and was repeatedly hospitalized, eventually receiving the kind of warning nobody wants to hear: she might not survive.
Love has not publicly identified a specific diagnosis for the broader illness she says began in 2019. She previously revealed that she suffered from severe anemia and was hospitalized in 2020, when she said she weighed just 97 pounds and had "almost died."
But even while battling for her health, Love apparently refused to stop making music.
The rocker revealed she continued working on her long-awaited new album whenever she was well enough to get out of the hospital. At the time, she apparently wondered whether it might literally become her final record.
Now, years later, Love says the album is finally finished - and she sounds ready for a comeback.
The still-unreleased project reportedly has some serious star power surrounding it, with names including Michael Stipe, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, guitarist Will Sergeant and producer Butch Walker connected to the sessions.
Love's tumultuous life and career have also returned to the spotlight through the documentary Antiheroine, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year.
The good news? Love says she's healthy again and wants to get back onstage, sing and tour.
But fans hoping all this renewed activity means a Hole reunion shouldn't get too excited. Love recently poured cold water on speculation that the legendary band was getting back together.
For now, the biggest mystery is when fans will finally hear the album Love created while she believed she might be running out of time.
After surviving the health crisis she says nearly killed her, Courtney Love apparently isn't ready for a final curtain after all.
