Ray J was hospitalized with severe chest pain and diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition.
His mother says he must strictly follow medication and lifestyle changes to manage the illness.
Some claim Ray J is faking the illness for attention, but his mother firmly denies these allegations.
Even though some fans don’t believe Ray J’s health is as bad as he claims, his mother insists the reality star is genuinely struggling.
On Tuesday, March 3, the singer’s mom, Sonja Norwood, went live on Facebook to address her followers. She went on to add a caption to the 38-minute video, which she titled, “An update on Ray Js health.”
About three minutes into the broadcast, the talent manager, producer, and entrepreneur said that she wanted to address rumors about Ray J’s health in an effort to “clear up things.”
“It’s just gotten out of hand when someone thinks that my son is faking his health, or [that] it’s a hoax, or [that] he’s just playing around [and] he’s not really serious about it,” Norwood said in the video. “[But] I’d just like to get something clear: I’m the type of mother that there’s not much I don’t know about my children… so for all of you that have been genuinely concerned about him… I want to say I thank you very much for that because it takes multiple prayers and thoughts for things to change.”
She went on to say that in January, Ray was hospitalized after what doctors initially believed was pneumonia. Upon further testing, he was kept under medical care, where he later suffered “severe chest pain.” Doctors ultimately performed an angiogram and diagnosed the star with “cardiomyopathy,” a form of heart disease that makes “the heart have a harder time pumping blood to the rest of the body, which can lead to symptoms of heart failure,” per Mayo Clinic.
Norwood also claims that “blood flow was 15-20% to his heart,” calling the health scar “life-threatening.” Though she acknowledged that her son “can portray many characters,” she did stress that he has been prescribed several medications to manage his illness.
“It has been told to him that if he does not take his medication, if he does not take medical advice, and if he doesn’t rest and stay stress-free… then he has a life-threatening situation,” she continued, insisting Ray must now abide by his “new limitations” in both his career and personal life.
“And that’s where we are,” she said. “[But] my biggest worry is if he’s taking his medication exactly like he’s supposed to be because he has complained that those medications make him tired and make him eat more than he ever has before.”
She finished the livestream by once again stating that Ray J is not pretending to be sick or staging a “hoax.” Instead, he is simply “trying to adjust to a condition that he has.”
This correction from Norwood comes after photographer Tommy Nard II claimed that Ray appearing onstage with blood running from his eyes was a fake stunt. Last month, Nard posted footage that appears to show Ray J lying on his back onstage and applying “fake blood” to his eyes before he continued to perform.
As BOSSIP previously reported, the singer slammed those claims, telling fans to “Forget what you’re hearing.”
