'RHOBH' star Brandi Glanville shares new details on facial 'parasite' battle
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville has given an update on her health as she is dealing with a "parasite" that has disfigured her face for the past few years.
The TV personality took to her Instagram account to share a close-up video of what she looks like currently as she shared that she has been diagnosed with several illnesses in relation to her disfigurement.
“I’m finally ready to tell you what I’ve actually been fighting and to start sharing some of my worst moments leading up to finally getting diagnosed," she wrote. "I’ve been diagnosed with highly resistant ESBL Klebsiella and Enterobacter with biofilm, coccidioidomycosis (valley fever), demodex dermatitis, and mononucleosis."
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ESBL-producing Klebsiella and Enterobacter are dangerous, multi-drug resistant bacteria that form protective slime layers called biofilms. This makes them resistant to common antibiotics and may require complex treatments.
Coccidioidomycosis, on the other hand, is a fungal lung infection caused by breathing in spores from coccidioides fungi that live in the soil, while demodex dermatitis is an inflammatory skin condition caused by an overpopulation of tiny, microscopic mites living in your hair follicles and oil glands.
And finally, mononucleosis is a contagious viral infection spread through saliva that causes extreme tiredness, fever, and a sore throat.
Aside from these, Glanville said that she also has a "fungal ball" in her face that needs to be removed.
"I have to get the metals from old dental work out of my mouth, my breast implants need to come out, and I’m looking at four to six months of daily IV treatment," she said.
In her video, the 53-year-old former model delved more into how the parasite in her face has now spread to her right arm. She also showed the large fungal ball at the side of her face that was "hard as a rock."
"I’m so sick [of it], I just want to cut it out of my face," she said.
According to her, the treatments cost around $3,300 (P206,370) to $6,000 (P375,219) a month even with insurance.
"The treatment has not been easy and so far I’ve had very little improvement. I still have a couple surgeries ahead of me and months of treatment to go," she lamented.
"I’m not able to work right now other than my podcast and I honestly don’t know how I’m going to do this mentally or financially. I’m sharing some really bad moments and I know I don’t look good in these videos. Honestly, I don’t care. I feel terrible and this is what being sick looks like for me right now," Glanville said.
She asked others to be nice in the comments as she is "already fighting enough."
"I just want this s***t out of my body. I want my health back. I want my life back. I want to feel like me again," she said.
Glanville previously opened up about her condition in 2024, where she revealed that the health issue started after filming Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip in Morocco.
“We had food sitting out for hours on end and some of it was meat,” she recalled.
“Six months after I got back from Morocco, I started having this speaking thing and the swelling up thing. It started in July and we’re still here trying to figure it out,” she continued, adding that she could see and feel the "parasite" move like "tiny bubbles bursting" within her face.
Glanville was a staple in the third, fourth, and fifth seasons of the reality television series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which focuses on the personal and professional lives of women living in Beverly Hills, California.
She went on to launch a podcast called "Brandi Glanville Unfiltered."