10 Celebrities Living With Crohn’s Disease

The Saturday Night Live cast member has been open about his struggles with Crohn’s disease since being diagnosed at the age of 17. Despite trying a range of medications, Davidson has attributed smoking marijuana as one of the few things that would settle his stomach enough to eat and perform on SNL.

“Weed would be the only thing that would help me eat,” Davidson told High Times. “I wouldn’t be able to perform on SNL if I didn’t smoke weed.”

This is just anecdotal evidence for Davidson, but cannabinoids — the active ingredients in marijuana — seem to restore the microbial balance that’s lost in individuals with inflamed guts when tested on mice in a study, showing a possible solution for the future.

Davidson notably also has inflammation around his eyes, which might be a side effect of Crohn’s. Davidson has been candid about his struggles with the disease, even mentioning it in his film The King of Staten Island.

If regular activities sound difficult for people living with Crohn’s disease, imagine trying to swim at a competitive level when getting diagnosed as a 12-year-old national champion.

Baker had to battle stomach cramps, severe weight loss, and nausea. But she made it through it all, eventually earning the silver medal in the 100-meter backstroke at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and helping Team USA to gold in the 4x100 medley relay, and once holding the 100-meter world backstroke record.

Baker has advocated for finding the best doctor to treat your symptoms and finding doctors who support your goals.

“I found doctors who weren’t going to be just like, ‘‘You’re Kathleen with Crohn’s disease.’ I need to be Kathleen the swimmer with Crohn’s disease,” Baker told The New York Times in 2016.

Popular YouTube personality Jimmy Donaldson has been open about his struggles with Crohn’s disease on his YouTube channel MrBeast, which has 92.4 million subscribers. Donaldson has spoken about how diet regulates his symptoms, causing him to lose 30 pounds at one point in his life, and how it even affects going out with his friends.

“Sometimes I have to bring my own PB&J when we’re eating out at fast food or things like that just because I don’t want to be in stomach pain,” Donaldson said in a 2015 video on his channel.

While not the most popular videos on his channel, which includes survival challenges, Donaldson said that he made videos about his life with Crohn’s to reach out to teens who may have questions about their own symptoms. Donaldson has also spoken about his experience using the immunosuppressive drug Remicade (infliximab) to help treat his symptoms.

Independent wrestler Aerial Hull, better known as Big Swole, is a self-described “Crohnie” who released a statement on her Twitter page in 2021 describing her battle with the disease during the pandemic.

“I was informed that resuming my medicine for Crohn's would result in death given the COVID-19 circumstances,” wrote Swole. “I was doing alright self-managing until the flare-ups started in the fall. As some of you may not know, Crohn's attacks the body as a whole, so on top of my intestines issues, different body parts would lock up and become incapable of bending at the joints.”

Crohn’s disease has disrupted Swole’s life multiple times, and doctors had trouble diagnosing her in 2019. Labeling it “the nightmare virus,” she was able to get it correctly diagnosed and controlled before appearing in the inaugural All Out professional wrestling pay-per-view event.

Singer Mike Hadreas, who goes by the stage name Perfume Genius, has spoken about his battle with Crohn’s for a decade, conveying the heavy toll the symptoms have on him.

“It’s not a cute disease. I’m essentially just bleeding. I have lots of open wounds in my intestines. It’s just your body betraying you,” Hadreas told The Fader in 2017.

While others were dealing with COVID-19, Hadreas told SF Weekly that his Crohn’s Disease flared up during the pandemic, which stymied the creative growth he was experiencing that led to his fifth album, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately.

While Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, released on May 15, 2020, was about healing, Hadreas has written about how the disease affects him both physically and mentally in multiple songs over his five-album discography, exploring the limitations a person’s body can have.

The six-time Tony Award–winning actress and singer has taken to Twitter over the years to talk about Crohn’s disease. In November 2020, McDonald, along with other Broadway stars who suffer from inflammatory bowel diseases, performed at the virtual benefit concert for the Greater New York Chapter of Crohn's and Colitis Foundation's "The Great Gutsby," which was held virtually due to the pandemic.

The lead guitarist for Pearl Jam has tirelessly advocated for Crohn’s disease. McCready has worked with the northwest chapter of Crohn's and Colitis Foundation to promote awareness, share his story, and raise funds to find a cure for the disease.

“Some of the challenges I’ve had were having accidents on stage and having extreme pain playing in front a bunch of people and being in tour buses and traveling around the world and needing to know where the bathroom is all the time,” McCready told Michael Osso, the president and CEO of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, in a 2020 video interview.

McCready has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation over the many years he has been the national spokesperson for the foundation.

David Garrard, the former quarterback for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, had a foot of his intestine removed because of Crohn's disease. In 2004, when he began having stomach pains after meals, Garrad told The New York Times that he believed he just had a stomach bug and waited three months to seek help. But after some extreme weight loss, he went to get tested and was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. To battle the disease he opted for surgery and a maintenance drug.

Garrad has been active in the Crohn’s community. He has raised money for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation and established the David Garrard Foundation, which was designed to help single mothers with breast cancer and young children who have Crohn’s disease.

Cynthia McFadden’s journey with Crohn’s disease is well documented. Currently the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News, McFadden has done everything from recording radio public service announcements to working alongside Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation to raise awareness. Two years after she was diagnosed in 1977, she had a large section of her intestine removed through surgery.

The former professional hockey player and current head coach of the Utica Comets in the American Hockey League initially received his diagnosis of Crohn’s disease in 1987, three years into his career.

“It was a real eye-opening experience because that [a quick fix] is just not the way it works,” Dineen told USA Hockey Magazine. “This is a chronic, debilitating disease that’s with you for life. It took me a couple of years to come to grips with that.”

Although he has been hospitalized several times due to flare-ups, Dineen went on to have a 19-year long career and advocated on behalf of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation.