Jersey Shore star Jenni "JWoww" Farley helped her children get ready for their first day of school from a hospital room, where she is recovering from a kidney infection and appendicitis.
The 41-year-old reality television personality has been hospitalized for nearly a week. "Not the first day of school picture I wanted to post, but then again, I guess we wouldn't have one," Farley wrote on Instagram on Sept. 3, adding a picture of her doing her 11-year-old daughter Meilani's hair.
Farley, who also has a 10-year-old son named Greyson with her ex-husband Roger Mathews, said she had spent every day fighting to get healthy enough to go home.
"I want to say it came out of nowhere, but the truth is, I haven't felt like myself for months," she admitted. She noted that she had experienced weight loss, exhaustion and constantly feeling off before her body finally gave out the previous Friday, telling her, "We aren't making it like this anymore."
Farley praised her husband Zack Clayton for bringing the children extra early so they could all be together. "No matter where I was, I was going to do my daughter's hair for her first day," she wrote.
"We didn't get the picture in front of the house," Farley added, explaining that they instead got "hospital bracelets, a hospital room, backpacks, hair supplies and a memory I don't think any of us will ever forget." She said the experience made her think about something much bigger, noting that her situation is temporary but some families are carrying hidden grief, illness, divorce or financial struggles.
"Notice the kid sitting alone," she urged fans. "Don't judge someone by what they're wearing, what they have, or what they didn't post. You never know what someone is carrying behind closed doors." She concluded that she was incredibly grateful for their unusual first day picture, wishing the children a safe, successful and kind year.
Brianna LaPaglia and Nikki Garcia
Brianna "Chickenfry" LaPaglia underwent emergency surgery in May 2026 after doctors found a large ovarian cyst that twisted her organs and caused internal bleeding. "There was a half a liter of blood in my pelvic floor," the BFFs podcaster shared on TikTok. "I have five incisions all over my stomach. They went in through my belly button with a camera so they could find all the blood."
Total Bellas star Nikki Garcia revealed that one of her breast implants shifted when she took an elbow slam from Piper Niven during a July 2025 WWE wrestling match. "We're going to get it fixed one day," she told her sister Bella Garcia, adding that she told her doctor she was newly divorced and wanted to make them look good for future dates.
Lupita Nyong'o and Suki Waterhouse
Lupita Nyong'o was diagnosed with uterine fibroids in 2014, the same year she won an Academy Award for her performance in 12 Years a Slave. She disclosed the non-cancerous growths around her uterus in 2025, writing on Instagram that she had been "suffering in silence" for over a decade. "When we reach puberty, we're taught periods mean pain, and that pain is simply part of being a woman," she shared, adding that women struggle alone with something that affects them most.
Actress Suki Waterhouse was hospitalized with a hernia in July 2025. The Daisy Jones & The Six star wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the gap in her muscular wall was caused by wearing tight pants six months earlier, admitting she had been "too scared" to share the news sooner.
Brian Austin Green and Savannah DeMelo
Beverly Hills, 90210 actor Brian Austin Green recovered from his first major surgery after his appendix nearly burst in April 2025. He said in an Instagram video that he went to the emergency room with stomach pain and was diagnosed with a perforated appendix. "I'm on the road to recovery. It's not an easy process," he said.
Racing Louisville midfielder Savannah DeMelo collapsed minutes into a Sept. 14 National Women's Soccer League match against the Seattle Reign at Lumen Field in Seattle. The United States Women's National Team player sat on the field with a teammate before collapsing as a referee called for trainers. The league wrote on X that she was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation and was "stable and alert."
Adam Devine and Jason Tartick
Actor Adam Devine said injuries he suffered when a cement truck hit him at age 11 still cause him spasms all over. "It's been a nightmare," he said on a 2025 episode of the In Depth With Graham Bensinger podcast. "For a while, the doctors told me I was dying, literally, within this last year." He added that his body has things that are a little wonky and wrong with it.
Bachelor Nation's Jason Tartick went to the hospital crawling on all fours because of back pain aggravated during a recreational vehicle trip with a friend. He said on his Trading Secrets podcast in March 2025 that his legs felt tingly and he could not do a single leg squat without falling, despite squatting 295 pounds weeks earlier. He described the feeling as being like he had a stroke, but said a back specialist and steroids were helping him mend.
Matt Kirschenheiter and Tracy Morgan
Matt Kirschenheiter survived a heart attack in March 2025, according to his ex-wife Gina Kirschenheiter of the Real Housewives of Orange County.
Comedian Tracy Morgan was wheeled out of Madison Square Garden during a New York Knicks basketball game in March 2025. The 30 Rock star posted on social media the next day that he was recovering from food poisoning.
Christy Carlson Romano and Amy Schumer
Even Stevens actress Christy Carlson Romano was shot in the face in February 2025 while shooting clay pigeons for her husband Brendan Rooney's birthday. She said on Instagram that another party unsafely fired in the wrong direction, hitting her in five places. One fragment lodged behind her right eye, which doctors said was too risky to remove surgically. She said Rooney rushed her to the hospital, and she reminded fans that life can change in an instant.
Comedian Amy Schumer was diagnosed with Cushing syndrome after doctors noticed her puffier face during press appearances and commented online. She said on a January 2025 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast that she initially thought she was being trolled, until she realized the syndrome was caused by steroid injections she received in scars from a breast reduction and a cesarean section. She said she would not have known if the internet had not come for her so hard. She wrote in her News Not Noise newsletter in February 2024 that the condition would work itself out and finding out she was healthy was the greatest news imaginable.
Casey Fitzgerald and the Biebers
American Hockey League player Casey Fitzgerald received 25 stitches after a fellow player's skate blade cut his neck during a December 2024 game. His father, New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald, told ESPN his son fully recovered, adding, "I don't wish that on any parent."
Model Hailey Bieber suffered a small blood clot to her brain while having breakfast with her husband Justin Bieber in March 2022. She said on YouTube that she could not speak and the right side of her face drooped. Doctors at the University of California, Los Angeles, found a hole in her heart called a patent foramen ovale, which allowed the clot to travel to her brain and cause a transient ischemic attack. She had a successful closure procedure.
Justin Bieber canceled the rest of his Justice World Tour after he was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome in June 2022. He said in an Instagram video that a virus attacked his ear and facial nerves, paralyzing one side of his face and making it hard to eat. Hailey Bieber said on Good Morning America later that month that he was recovering and going to be totally okay.
Jamie Foxx and Tracey Yukich
Actor Jamie Foxx suffered a brain bleed and a stroke in Atlanta in April 2023. He said in his 2024 Netflix special, What Had Happened Was..., that he asked a friend for an aspirin for a headache and then did not remember the next 20 days. After a doctor sent him home with a cortisone shot, his sister Deidra Dixon drove him to a hospital. The Oscar winner woke up on May 4 in a wheelchair, unable to walk, and later went to Chicago for rehabilitation.
Tracey Yukich said she died while running a mile on the NBC television series The Biggest Loser. She explained on Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser that her organs began shutting down due to rhabdomyolysis, leading her to collapse on the first challenge. "I remember hearing the helicopter. I just felt like I was floating," she recalled, adding that she saw her grandfather and then saw light after darkness.
Emilia Clarke, Cori Broadus and Shailene Woodley
Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke suffered a life-threatening subarachnoid hemorrhage, a type of stroke caused by a ruptured aneurysm, she wrote in a 2019 essay for The New Yorker. She described being violently ill at the gym with a shooting and stabbing pain, knowing her brain was damaged. She underwent immediate surgery to seal the aneurysm and suffered from temporary aphasia. In 2013, doctors accessed her brain through her skull after a second growth doubled in size and a less invasive procedure failed, leaving her screaming in pain. She is now completely recovered.
Snoop Dogg's daughter Cori Broadus suffered a severe stroke in January 2024. She told E! News in December 2024 that her family rushed to her rescue after she texted them a picture. She stayed in the hospital longer than expected because her kidneys were failing due to lupus. She said she is doing great but had to work on regaining her motor skills.
Actress Shailene Woodley spent a decade dealing with an undisclosed health condition in her early 20s that caused hearing loss and prevented her from walking for more than five minutes. She said on the SHE MD Podcast in September 2024 that everything she ate hurt her stomach, leading to a fear of food, body dysmorphia and an identity crisis. She noted that she worked with medical doctors and independent healers before the issue ultimately resolved itself.
