Brian Austin Green Shares Private Health Battle – and Why He’s Speaking out Today [Exclusive]
When Beverly Hills: 90210 star Brian Austin Green revealed in April he had a horrific bout of ulcerative colitis, he didn’t share that he’d been dealing with the disease for more than 10 years.
“I’ve had health scares for a while now,” Green told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “I wasn’t just recently diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. I had a flare-up, and because of social media, people knew about it, but it wasn’t new to me. It was just newly reported on because it was the first time, I had spoken about it.”
Brian Austin Green has been dealing with ulcerative colitis since his early 30s
Green shared on Instagram that he was bedridden during girlfriend Sharna Burgess’s pregnancy. He posted a video, acknowledging that he hadn’t been on social media for quite a while.
“I had ulcerative colitis for about six and a half weeks, which wasn’t very fun,” Green shared in an Instagram video. “Horrible timing. Sharna is amazing, six, seven months pregnant. Taking care of my three young kids because I was pretty bedridden for a while. Taking care of me. Not complaining. Being amazing. I am super thankful to have someone like her in my life. But I’m back now and I’m feeling good. Thank goodness. It was. It was a terrible experience. I’m glad it’s over.”
But unfortunately dealing with ulcerative colitis isn’t new for Green. “I’m 49 now with five kids. I’ve had ulcerative colitis since my early 30s,” he told Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
Brian’s ulcerative colitis puts him at risk for other diseases – like prostate cancer
Because he’s dealt with ulcerative colitis, Green said it puts him at risk for other diseases. “The risk for me to contracting prostate cancer is higher because of what I deal with health-wise,” he explained.
Rather than staying silent about his health battle, he decided to go public to raise awareness of other risks associated with the disease.
“So, when Depend came to me after I think they had seen part of what I had done on social media, talking about my health stuff, they were like, ‘Hey, it’s really important for us. We have this campaign, Stand Strong for Men’s Health campaign that we do.’ This is the third year that they have done it,” Green shared.
“And part of their proceeds from the purchase of Depend products goes to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which is amazing,” he added. “For as prevalent as prostate cancer is, one in eight men, will test positive for prostate cancer in their lifetime, which is a staggering number. The fact that there’s any sort of stigma around talking about it is crazy to me.”
Brian Austin Green wants to break down the stigma surrounding prostate cancer
Green said that Depend’s goal was to remove the stigma surrounding prostate cancer and testing. “Their focus was really on helping to break down the stigma around going in and getting tested … which is really amazing,” he said. “The thought that one in every eight men will test positive for prostate cancer, but there’s a stigma for getting tested is really mind-boggling for me. I thought, ‘Yeah, we can discuss it in a way where men realize, oh, it’s so easy to do, the testing is so simple now – it’s a blood draw.'”
“This PSA test takes less than five minutes to do,” he added. “You go into your doctor’s office and do a blood draw and get your results within a day. If we can take the stigma out of it and just make that a much more general part of life – just a thing you do, you go in annually and you get tested for prostate cancer and for everything else, the same way you would going to the dentist, I think it’s invaluable and it’s just too easy to not do at this point.”
Starting in September for Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and continuing through November for Men’s Health Awareness Month, Depend® is partnering with the Prostate Cancer Foundation to donate up to $350,000 per purchase of select Depend® products to support the foundation’s work to improve the treatment of prostate cancer and ultimately cure it for good.
