Brooke Shields recently had lunch with Glamour’s editor-in-chief, Samantha Berry. During their meal, they had a conversation that ended up being the cover story of the November issue. Shields was open and honest on her feelings about a wide range of topics, including botox (she’s not a fan), her daughters wearing her old dresses (she loves it, but it wasn’t her idea), and what she wants to do next (a sitcom). Along with the truth bombs, Shields also shared a scary health update.
Most recently, Shields has been performing in a show in New York City, and after a rehearsal, she had a grand mal seizure. She said, “I had a full-blown grand mal seizure on Thursday before the show. Nobody knows about it.” Nobody, that is, except actor Bradley Cooper. More on that in a minute.
Shields explained, “I was preparing for the show, and I was drinking so much water, and I didn’t know I was low in sodium. I was waiting for an Uber. I get down to the bottom of the steps, and I start evidently looking weird.” She continued, “Then I walk into the restaurant L’Artusi, and I go to the sommelier who had just taken an hour to watch my run-through. I go in, two women come up to me; I don’t know them. Everything starts to go black. Then my hands drop to my side and I go headfirst into the wall.”
Shields ended up “having a grand mal seizure.” She explained, “It means frothing at the mouth, totally blue, trying to swallow my tongue. The next thing I remember, I’m being loaded into an ambulance. I have oxygen on.”
What Shields didn’t know in that moment was that the sommelier tried to call Shields’ husband, Chris Henchy, but instead, he ended up talking to an assistant who called another assistant who called Cooper because he was nearby. According to Shields, the assistant told Cooper, “Brooke’s on the ground. Chris isn’t around. Go get her.”
However, all Shields knew at that moment was that she opened her eyes in an ambulance, and Cooper was holding her hand, telling her “I’m going to go to the hospital with you, Brooke.” She said it felt very “odd and surreal.”
At the hospital, the doctors told Shields that the cause of the seizure was low sodium. She explained, “I had had too much water. I flooded my system, and I drowned myself. And if you don’t have enough sodium in your blood or urine or your body, you can have a seizure.”
Shields told the doctors, “I was drinking too much water because I felt dehydrated because I was singing more than I’ve ever sung in my life and doing a show and a podcast.” They instructed her to “eat potato chips every day.”
