News | Entertainment
17 Dec 2025 15:36
NZCity News
NZCity CalculatorReturn to NZCity

  • Start Page
  • Personalise
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • Finance
  • Shopping
  • Jobs
  • Horoscopes
  • Lotto Results
  • Photo Gallery
  • Site Gallery
  • TVNow
  • Dating
  • SearchNZ
  • NZSearch
  • Crime.co.nz
  • RugbyLeague
  • Make Home
  • About NZCity
  • Contact NZCity
  • Your Privacy
  • Advertising
  • Login
  • Join for Free

  •   Home > News > Entertainment

    Billie Eilish has "made friends" with having Tourette's syndrome

    The 20-year-old singer was diagnosed with the neurological condition - which causes involuntary movements, twitches and sounds - when she was just 11 years old after experiencing "small" tics as a child and although she doesn't "like" it, she's grown to view her affliction as a "part of" her


    She said: "It's not like I like it, but I feel like it's part of me. I have made friends with it. And so now, I'm pretty confident in it. When I'm moving around, I'm not ticcing at all. When I'm riding my horse, I'm not ticcing. When I'm moving and thinking and focusing, when I'm singing [I'm not ticcing]."

    But the 'bad guy' hitmaker admitted she gets "incredibly offended" when people laugh at her tics or think she's making the movements on purpose.

    Speaking on 'My Next Guest Needs To Introduction', she told host David Letterman: "It's really weird. I haven't talked about it like at all. The most common way that people react is they laugh because they think I'm trying to be funny. They think I'm going like [imitates one of her tics] as, like, a funny move.

    "So they go like 'Ha!' and I am always left incredibly offended by that or they [turn their head behind them] and go 'What?' And then I go, 'I have Tourette's'.

    Billie was fascinated to learn other musicians also have the condition.

    She said: "What's funny is so many people have it that you would never know. A couple artists came forward and said, 'I've actually always had Tourette's,' and I'm not going to out them because they don't want to talk about it, but that was actually really interesting to me. I was like 'You do?! What?' "

    The 'Ocean Eyes' hitmaker finds her tics "very exhausting" but admitted people rarely notice them when they are in conversation with her.

    She said: "I actually really love answering questions about it because it's very, very interesting and I am incredibly confused by it and I don't get it.

    "I never don't tic at all, because the main tics that I do constantly all day long are like are like, I wiggle my ear back and forth, and raise my eyebrow, and click my jaw and do that, and like flex my arm here, and flex this arm, and flex these muscles.

    "These are things you would never notice if you're just having a conversation with me. But for me, they're very exhausting."

    © 2025 Bang Showbiz, NZCity

     Other Entertainment News
     17 Dec: Hugh Jackman once secretly wet himself on stage during Beauty and the Beast
     17 Dec: Amanda Seyfried has refused to apologise for comments about Charlie Kirk
     17 Dec: Idris Elba plans to give up acting to focus on directing "eventually"
     17 Dec: Kylie Jenner is refusing to "live for whatever everyone else wants" her to do
     17 Dec: Lauren Cowell has joked a funeral could come before a wedding "at the rate we're going"
     17 Dec: Gene Simmons has apologised for stating that former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley died as a result of "bad decisions"
     17 Dec: Julia Louis-Dreyfus felt "backed into a corner" to reveal her cancer diagnosis
     Top Stories

    RUGBY RUGBY
    The Highlanders have signed promising Southland playmaker Mika Muliaina for the next four years More...


    BUSINESS BUSINESS
    Horticulture NZ's emphasising the importance of backing growers - as exports climb to record levels More...



     Today's News

    Law and Order:
    The Crown believes Jevon McSkimming must have known he was committing crimes, given his position of power 15:27

    Entertainment:
    Hugh Jackman once secretly wet himself on stage during Beauty and the Beast 15:20

    Boxing:
    Multi-division world champion Terence Crawford announces retirement from boxing at age 38 15:17

    Law and Order:
    Former deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming's sentencing is underway in the Wellington District Court - where more than a dozen people have filed into the public gallery 14:57

    Entertainment:
    Amanda Seyfried has refused to apologise for comments about Charlie Kirk 14:50

    Entertainment:
    Idris Elba plans to give up acting to focus on directing "eventually" 14:20

    National:
    Hong Kong pro-democracy publisher convicted of sedition, in major blow to press freedom 14:17

    Politics:
    Meanwhile, Ngapuhi's is getting back Northland's historic Kororipo Pa - in the Kerikeri Basin 14:07

    Entertainment:
    Kylie Jenner is refusing to "live for whatever everyone else wants" her to do 13:50

    Politics:
    A historic land dispute dating back to the 1800s - is finally resolved 13:47


     News Search






    Power Search


    © 2025 New Zealand City Ltd