Mikayla Matthews Breaks Down in Tears as She Reveals How Chronic Illness Has Stripped Her of ‘So Much Happiness’

NEED TO KNOW

• Mikayla Matthews is sharing an update on her chronic illness

• After opening up about her fear of returning to Utah because of concerns that being back in the state would cause a flare up of her chronic illness, the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star opened up about dealing that she was dealing with some symptoms of her disease

Mikayla Matthews is opening up about a flare-up of her chronic illness.

In a video posted to Instagram on April 22, the momfluencer shared that, within two days of returning to Utah following a brand trip to Costa Rica, she had begun experiencing symptoms of her chronic illness again.

“As you can tell, like my hands flared up really bad. My neck flared up really bad,” Matthews said, as she showed her hands to the camera.

“I’m sitting here truly feeling like… in Utah, in this environment, I am just surviving with chronic illness,” she added, before saying, “When I was in Costa Rica, when I was in California, I’m living with chronic illness. My life is still going on. It’s not at the forefront of my mind.”

Earlier this month, on April 16, Matthews posted a message to her Instagram Stories as she returned from a trip in Costa Rica with former Dancing with the Stars pro Lindsay Arnold’s The Movement Club. Posting from her airplane seat, the momfluencer shared that she had the “worst anxiety going back home to Utah.” Matthews said that she was scared to lose “all the progress” she had made with her health while she was away from home. Online and on the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Matthews has been open about dealing with her illness, recently revealing that the name of her disease is a chronic inflammatory response syndrome, or CIRS, which she said was “brought on [by] prolonged exposures to toxins (mold).”

Now, having returned to Utah, Matthews said that her skin “is in a lot of physical pain,” which has caused her to “say no” to events she has coming up.

“I hate doing interviews on the carpet, taking pictures, and that’s out there for everyone to see,” she added, touching on how online comments about her appearance have gotten to her.

“I’m in so much pain laying on my bed not able to go up and get my kids from school or wake up with them and take them to school,” she said. Matthews also said she had considered selling her Utah home, but was afraid she would still be dealing with the same conditions in another one if she did.

“Nobody is ever going to understand the impact, chronic illness, and skin condition, and the way that it has completely, completely stripped me of so much happiness, stripped me of so much time with my family, with my kids, that I’m never gonna get back,” she said.

Matthews first opened up about her chronic illness in a post on Instagram in September 2024, revealing that she had been “fighting for my life” while filming the first season of Mormon Wives, in part because of mysterious skin flare-ups.

Back in 2023, Matthews shared that she’s experienced chronic eczema since childhood, but suspected her other symptoms that would later be diagnosed as CIRS began after getting breast implants in March of that year.

The influencer, who is mom to son Beckham, 8, and daughters Haven, 5½, Tommie, 3, and Lottie June, 8 months, with her husband Jace Terry, also said that, as a result of her struggles with her chronic illness, her “mom guilt” has “eaten [her] alive.”

Read the original article on People