Yahoo News Tiffany Chen Says She’s Been Diagnosed With Bell’s Palsy, “Lost All Facial Function” After Giving Birth
Tiffany Chen is publicly discussing her recent Bell’s palsy diagnosis, which she says followed her giving birth to her and partner Robert De Niro’s first child together.
In a preview clip of a sit-down interview with CBS Mornings’ Gayle King slated to air in full on Friday, Chen explained how the condition worsened after she came home from the hospital after giving birth to her daughter, Gia Virginia Chen-De Niro, earlier this year.
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The martial artist said that initially, her “tongue felt strange” before other symptoms arose related to the neurological disorder that can cause paralysis or weakness on the sides of one’s face after the nerves that control facial muscles are injured or stop working properly.
“It felt a little tingly — just starting to get a little bit numb. Then I realized my face just felt weird. I didn’t know what the feeling was that I was having,” she told King.
Chen also noticed changes in the way her face appeared. “I looked in the mirror when I got home. It was like everything was starting to just fall down on itself,” she recalled. “Like my face is melting on itself.”
The symptoms began to worsen “a week after giving birth” — a time when Chen says “it all began to hit.” That ultimately prompted her to seek medical attention. “I called my doctor and I said I was trying to eat. I wanted to put just a fork of food in my mouth, and everything came out. I couldn’t eat. Then I was starting to slur,” she said.
The interview marks the first time Chen has spoken about the condition, which at one point impacted her ability to eat. “They put me to go right to the hospital, admitted me and I lost all facial function the minute I got into the hospital,” she recalled to King.
De Niro confirmed the birth of his and Chen’s baby back in early May during an interview promoting his new film About My Father. The previous month, paparazzi had captured photos of the duo, including Chen with a baby bump, exiting Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica with Billy Crystal and Harvey Keitel. Gia is De Niro’s seventh child.
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