Actress La La Anthony is speaking out about her long battle with plaque psoriasis, which affects over six million individuals in the U.S.
In an interview with Newsweek, Anthony revealed that she fought for years to find a remedy for her plaque psoriasis, a group of skin conditions that affect the skin and cause itchy rashes and pain.
The BMF actor shared, “This is the first time I’m really talking about it publicly… but you just get that ‘aha’ moment where you realize ‘I wasn’t put in this position to not utilize my voice and my platform for good.”
“It’s also about letting people know that I’m not ashamed of it, it’s not a scary thing… it was the perfect timing to do this,” she added.
Anthony added that it’s been a struggle trying to maintain the condition while being a working actress. “I’ve just had to figure out ways to live with it, being a public figure and someone that’s on TV, whether it’s how I do my hair or something that I wear or working out if I have an itchy patch, how do I cover that?” she said.
But Anthony is eager to share her knowledge of the disease with others through an awareness-raising interactive platform hosted by medical technology company Amgen.
“There’s so many people dealing with the same thing. So I definitely thought it was a great idea to… get my story out there to help someone else that might be going through it too,” she said.
“We did a really fun interactive video on momentswithlala.com where people can hear and see me talking about it, asking me questions and just understand how I’ve been able to live with it and still have a great life, still have a lot of fun and just be able to manage it.
La La was engaged to Carmelo Anthony in 2004 and welcomed their son in 2007 before tying the knot three years later. The pair separated in 2017, but reunited the following year before La La filed for divorce in 2021.
La La said in 2021 that the divorce “hit [her] hard.” During a visit to The Angie Martinez Show, she said that the public nature of their breakup threw her for a loop “because there were other people involved.”