Famous People With Scoliosis

As you all probably know, last Friday Princess Eugenie got married!!! She wore a low-back dress with no veil so that you could see her scar from spinal fusion surgery. I already knew she had scoliosis before her wedding but I had a lot of people coming up to me and saying that they had no idea. This made me think, there are so many celebrities who have accomplished so much despite their scoliosis/surgery so I’ve done some research and found a few familiar faces who have scoliosis.

Usain Bolt

It is hard to believe that the fastest man in the world actually has scoliosis, but it’s true!! Lucky for him he never required surgery or a brace but he has still battled with the condition the whole way through his career. The three time Olympic gold medalist said that at the beginning of his career that the scoliosis really effected him and caused many injuries every year but now he knows how to control it. He said if he keeps his core and back strong then the scoliosis doesn’t bother him. Also when he was still competing he always travelled with his private masseuse so he could receive treatment before and after training or racing. Usain Bolt is a perfect example that you can do anything you put your mind to, with or without scoliosis.

Princess Eugenie

So I already briefly mentioned Princess Eugenie but here’s more of her story… So Princess Eugenie is obviously the granddaughter of the Queen. She was first diagnosed with scoliosis when she was 12 years old. She was told by the doctors at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital that she would need spinal fusion surgery. Her surgery went for 8 hours and she had 8-inch titanium rods along her spine and the top of her neck. After the surgery she spent three days in intensive care then a week on a ward and six days in a wheelchair. She opened up about the procedure this year, two decades after she had the surgery, to raise money for the hospital that treated her. As I said earlier, on her wedding day she wanted to show her scar to teach others to be proud of their scars so she wore a low-back dress with no veil so it could be seen. She also invited her surgeon to her wedding to thank him. I think that was a very inspiring thing to do and I encourage everyone to wear their scars with pride, as I mentioned in a past post- https://justanothercurveball.com/wear-your-scar-with-pride/ I will leave a link here to her Instagram where she often speaks of her scoliosis- https://instagram.com/princesseugenie?utm_source=ig_profile_share&igshid=16zov9ijh8i6c

Martha Hunt

Martha Hunt is a famous Victoria’s Secret supermodel. She was first discovered and started modelling at the age of 13 but at 14 she had some concerns about her body, her parents thought she was just being a typical insecure teenager and took no notice. By the age of 15 it became more obvious and she eventually convinced her parents to take her to the doctors. The doctor told her that she did indeed have scoliosis but there was nothing to do about it but watch it as he thought bracing was giving inconsistent results, she later found out that being braced then could have prevented her later surgery. So by the time she was 17 her back pain was getting worse and some model casting agents were noticing the curvature, so she went to a different doctors and was told she would need spinal surgery. At the time of surgery her spine had a 39 and 52 degree curve. She has now started her own jewellery collection where 100% of the profits goes to Curvy Girls which is the world wide group I am part of which helps girls with scoliosis. On her jewellery the word ‘resilient’ is engraved in English on one side and the word ‘inégal’ which is French for uneven is on the other to serve as a reminder that life can be beautiful with scoliosis. I will leave a link to the jewellery here- https://pluma-italia.net/product-category/inegal/ and here is a link to a video she did with Teen Vogue all about her scoliosis story and the meaning behind her jewellery line- https://youtu.be/cAkTvJRXoDg

Georgie Parker

Now I couldn’t do this blog post without mentioning an actress from my fav show, Home and Away. Yes, Georgie Parker is an actress on the soap opera Home and Away where she plays Roo Stewart. Despite being on the TV every week, many people don’t realise that she also has scoliosis. At the age of 13 she was diagnosed and now has a 59 degree curve. She considers herself lucky as she says herself that her curve is in a ‘good’ spot so after wearing a brace for three years she didn’t need to have surgery. She says it impacts her on a daily basis but she just has to stay fit to keep her back as functional as possible. Earlier this year she actually had a hip replacement which was caused by osteoarthritis but it is likely the scoliosis also had something to do with the need for that surgery.

There are so many other well known people with scoliosis, I obviously couldn’t mention them all. If you want to learn about some others here is a link to a website with a very long list of celebrities with the condition- https://m.ranker.com/list/famous-people-with-scoliosis/celebrity-lists Also let me know if you like these more researched, informative posts because I’m happy to write some more if you have more suggestions.