Celebrities With Type 2 Diabetes
By Amanda MacMillan
People often think that type 2 diabetes strikes only the overweight and sedentary, or unhealthy eaters.
But anyone can be diagnosed with diabetes, even world-class athletes, or the rich and famous.
The following celebrities all had some risk factors for diabetes but many were still shocked to hear the diagnosis. They’ve all made healthy changes in their lives, and many now speak out about the dangers of type 2 diabetes.
Actress Berry was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 22, after she became ill and slipped into a weeklong coma. In 2007, however, Berry announced that she’d weaned herself off insulin.
Doctors say that Berry likely had type 2 diabetes all along, because there is no way to avoid insulin if you have type 1.
Since Berry is healthy and fit, doctors may have initially ruled out type 2, which usually affects young people only if they are overweight.
The Goodfellas and Law & Order actor was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2006, after feeling tired and thirsty for months. Daughter Mira, also an actor, got involved after he almost passed out one night during dinner.
The two became spokespeople for Diabetes Co-Stars, a website sponsored by an insulin manufacturer to raise awareness about the importance of support in managing the disease.
Sorvino now has his diabetes under control, thanks to healthier eating, exercise, medication, and daily insulin injections.
In 2002, music producer and American Idol judge Jackson weighed more than 300 pounds. He was diagnosed with diabetes after experiencing "flu symptoms" that turned out to be high blood sugar.
Even though his father was diabetic, Jackson says, he never imagined it would happen to him.
With gastric bypass surgery, he lost almost 100 pounds. He has kept the weight off—and his diabetes under control—with healthy eating and daily exercise
This former presidential hopeful and Fox News host made headlines in 2004: The then-governor of Arkansas lost 105 pounds.
In 2003 he had been diagnosed with diabetes after he woke one morning with a numb and tingly arm, he told People. Soon after, the death of his friend and former governor Frank White motivated him to get healthy.
Huckabee dropped from 3,000 calories a day to 1,600. Just two years later, he had completed several marathons, and today he says he has reversed all signs of his diabetes.
Delta Burke
This former Designing Women star was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1997 at age 41.
"I learned how to, on the set, have certain kinds of snacks that were readily available to me," she told dLifeTV, a program associated with the popular diabetes website. "I test my blood sugar in public and I’ll give myself shots in front of people and after a while it becomes normal."
Going on the diabetes drug Byetta in 2005 helped Burke get back to a healthy weight and improved her blood sugar.
In April 2004, broadcasting legend Clark announced that he had type 2 diabetes. He’d been diagnosed 10 years before, at 64, but went public as a paid spokesperson for the American Association of Diabetes Educators.
Clark had a stroke later that year and didn’t return to TV until the 2005–2006 New Year’s Eve countdown. In 2009, Clark told USA Today that he was "feeling fine, though the stroke has slowed me down and made it difficult for me to walk and talk.
"Anyone can develop diabetes, even an athlete," says tennis champion Billie Jean King, who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes four years ago at age 63.
King, who founded the Women’s Sports Foundation in 1974, has a family history of diabetes and also had an eating disorder in the past. "I was a binge eater. I don’t binge eat anymore, but for about 10 years, I was being very cruel to my poor little pancreas."
To keep her condition under control, she exercises frequently, takes medication, and tests her blood sugar once or twice a day.
Grammy-award winner LaBelle had no idea she had type 2 diabetes until she passed out on stage in 1994. "I was hooked on fried chicken and pasta," she told People in 2008.
LaBelle was no stranger to diabetes complications: Her mother had leg amputations, and an uncle had gone blind. So, she got in shape and revamped her cooking techniques.
The "divabetic," as she refers to herself, has released three cookbooks that include diabetic-friendly recipes.
The 77-year-old CNN anchor who retired from Larry King Live at the end of 2010 has been on diabetes medication since 1995. King told Diabetes Forecast magazine that before he was diagnosed, he had no symptoms.
King does have a history of heart disease, however, and acknowledges the connection between the two conditions: "As my cardiologist said to me, diabetes is heart disease." After a heart attack in 1987, King quit smoking, lost weight, and changed his eating habits, and, in 2004, he wrote a book called
Shepherd was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2007, days before she started as a cohost on The View. She didn’t change her eating habits until she had what she describes as a vision the following year.
"I had this vision of my son, Jeffrey, who was 2 then, lying on his bed and crying because he was trying to figure out where heaven was. Because that’s where everyone said Mommy was," she told Diabetes Forecast magazine in 2009.
Shepherd slimmed down from a size 16 to a size 4 by working with a nutritionist and a personal trainer.
Drew Carey
He became famous as an overweight comedian and sitcom star, but in 2010, Carey revealed a healthier, happier version of himself after dropping 80 pounds. Carey told People that after his weight loss, he was able to stop taking diabetes medication.
"Once I started dropping a couple pant sizes, then it was easy," he said. "’Cause once you see the results, then you don’t wanna stop.
Former Major League Baseball player Wells was one of the game’s best left-handed pitchers, but struggled with his weight for years. He wrote in his autobiography that he was half-drunk when he pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees in 1998.
When he was diagnosed with type 2 in 2007, he cut out alcohol, as well as rice, pasta, potatoes, and white bread, he told ESPN, in order to manage diabetes
Monroe played professional basketball from 1967 to 1980, but faced an even bigger challenge off the court, when he was diagnosed with diabetes in 1998.
Monroe, now 66, took part in the first Diabetes Restaurant Month. In 11 cities across the country, restaurants were challenged to make popular menu items diabetes friendly, while diners were challenged to make healthy choices (like sending back the bread basket and asking questions about how food is prepared) when eating out.
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