Former TOWIE star Billie Shepherd lifts the lid on Sister Act, her new reality show with sister Sam, their tight bond and the secret health battle that left her bed bound
With three beautiful children, a happy marriage and an exceptionally close bond with her sister, Billie Shepherd appears to live a charmed life. But behind the smiles, the former TOWIE star has been dealing with a diagnosis that has left her bedbound, which she describes as “horrendous”.
As Billie and her younger sister Samantha Faiers make their long-awaited return to our screens in their new ITV reality show, Sam And Billie: Sister Act, Billie sits down for an exclusive interview with the Mirror to reveal how she is slowly emerging from a battle with Lyme disease, a bacterial infection usually caused by the bite of an infected tick. Symptoms include extreme fatigue and joint pain which can last years.
“It’s been a really, really tough time,” Billie admits. “I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never been challenged with health issues, I’ve never had to face that. And people are dealing with things 10 times worse, but it has been awful.” Billie, 35, says she first started noticing symptoms in January. It comes after Mark Wright shares big ‘disappointment’ after holiday with baby Palma and Michelle Keegan.
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“One day I was fine, the next I woke up with really bad pains in my elbows and my arms,” she explains. “I thought I must have slept funny. I tried to ignore it but as the days went on, the pain went all over my body to the point where I couldn’t even get out of bed. It was horrendous.”
Billie says she went “back and forth to the doctors” and yet no one could work out what was wrong with her. But the symptoms only got worse. “I had hard, red lumps all over my legs, which were so painful, a horrible rash on my back and extreme fatigue,” she recalls.
“But worst was the reactive arthritis — the most intense, awful pain in my joints. It was agony. My immune system was attacking the healthy tissue in my joints. I had so many blood tests but no one could figure it out. One doctor said she’d never seen anything like it. It was frustrating. This went on for about two months before we learnt it was Lyme’s.”
Doctors believe Billie was bitten by an infected tick, possibly as long as three years ago. But the infection lay dormant until her immune system weakened, likely as a result of bouts of tonsillitis last year. As Billie’s discomfort increased, so did the prescriptions. Courses of antibiotics and steroids were offered in a bid to control her pain and reduce the inflammation.
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“My body wasn’t responding to antibiotics any more,” Billie says. “After the last course, I actually got worse. I was so unwell. It was only after Sam introduced me to a holistic doctor and I started taking natural medicines that I started to notice a difference and things slowly began to turn around.”
Billie had to rely on her husband Greg, Sam and their mum, Suzanne Wells, for daily help. “Some mornings I couldn’t even get out of bed. I would have to crawl,” she recalls. “Going to the toilet, I was in bits, I was hysterical, crying, because I was in so much pain. It was hard for me to sit on the toilet without Greg helping me. It was so scary.
“How could I have been fine one day and like that the next? Greg was so worried, but he’s been really good. And my mum, too. She could see I was in agony. She was round every day. Obviously I confided a lot in Samantha, too.” The big dilemma for Billie was how to explain it to her children, Nelly, 11, Arthur, eight, and Margot, two.
“Kids are adaptable, but I was so poorly there’s no way they wouldn’t notice,” Billie tells us. “I explained honestly why I wasn’t very well. Nelly understands, she’s on the ball and will ask if it’s Lyme disease that’s making me tired when I’m not feeling good. But equally I don’t want them to ever feel worried about me.”
Billie now wonders if the disease, which also affects Justin Timberlake, Avril Lavigne and Bella Hadid to name a few, was exacerbated by the fact she was stressed out by her children’s separate health issues. In the opening episode of Sister Act, which starts this week, Billie can be seen in tears as she tells Sam, 34, about the terrifying moment Margot was rushed to hospital by ambulance after suffering a seizure.
“That whole situation was really, really scary,” Billie says. “As a parent, you never think it’s going to happen to you — you wouldn’t even want to imagine it. And when it does happen you go into fight or flight mode. I was petrified.
“Margot hasn’t had a seizure since, and that was back in January. So I’m praying and hoping she’s grown out of them. But it was such a worrying time. As any parent who’s experienced their child having a febrile seizure will tell you, you’re on edge a lot of the time. It’s hard to deal with when it happens. It’s made me realise how much stress can affect your body.”
Billie continues, “It was a vicious circle. I think I was holding in a lot of worry and anxiety about the kids and not knowing at the time what was wrong with me. I think it all led to a massive immune system crash.” Arthur had health issues, too. Like his mum, he’d had tonsillitis for months and had been due to have them out — but Billie didn’t think it was a good idea.
“My gut feeling was that it was all bad timing and Arthur really didn’t want to go through that,” she says. “It’s not a nice operation — the aftermath is hard for children. So we spoke to a surgeon who suggested postponing it, especially as I was so ill at the time.
“I eventually got Arthur on natural medicine to try and clear his immune system. He’d had a lot of antibiotics for several bouts of tonsillitis, which isn’t ideal — it’s not great for your gut health — and the natural medicine really helped. Touch wood, he’s not had any problems since.”
While Billie says the holistic approach is working for her family, she is keen to stress that she’s not preaching or encouraging others to try it. “When I got ill I felt like my whole life had changed overnight. I worried about how I was going to get through it,” she says. “Things had been getting worse and worse by the day, but within two weeks of taking the holistic approach I was feeling better. I’m not saying that would be the case for everyone, of course. But it was right for me.”
Billie’s now feeling a lot better, though she stills suffers from fatigue, brain fog and occasional aches and pains. She’s hoping her story will raise awareness as there are an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 new cases of Lyme disease a year in the UK. It plays out in Sister Act, which, although filled with drama, also focuses on plenty of positives, including a cameo from Amanda Holden and, of course, Sam and Billie’s unbreakable bond.
“We’ve absolutely loved filming together again,” Billie gushes. “It’s so easy, so natural. We’re so close anyway, so to do this together again has been brilliant. The timing was right for Samantha and I, so as soon as the opportunity came up we thought, ‘Why not?’” Billie admits she and Sam had plenty of fights while growing up — “usually about clothes, or shoes, that kind of stuff” — but now they’re best friends.
“We don’t argue or bicker at all,” she insists. “We just get each other. We know what the other one’s like. Now, when Sam comes over, we have big sleepovers with all the kids. Greg will make himself scarce and leave us to it. Me, Mum and Samantha have the best time when it’s the three of us together. We have other friends and family, but when it’s just us, it’s the best. We love being in each other’s company.”
But while Sam and Billie are enjoying a harmonious sibling relationship, the same currently can’t be said of Nelly and Arthur. “Oh my God, they fight a lot,” Billie says, half laughing, half sighing. “It’s actually very stressful in our household. They chase each other around the kitchen as I’m trying to make dinner. Margot just watches and takes it all in. But that said, there will be a day when I miss all the crazy carnage in the house, now they’re all getting older.”
Nelly starts secondary school next month and Billie has already seen big changes in her eldest. “I’m getting into the next phase of parenthood,” she says. “I’ve noticed Nelly has really grown up in the last six months. We got her a phone for her birthday, her first one, and she walks around the house FaceTiming her little friends. That’s all they do. It’s hilarious.”
Billie lights up when talking about her children. Given what she’s been through, it’s a wonder she’s able to stay smiling, but, as Sister Act will show, she’s nothing if not resilient. “People have it far worse than me,” she says. “But it’s important, being on reality TV, to be honest and real. We all go through things. Being open about what we’re going through is the only way to be.
“When you’re in the public eye it can be good to share things. It can be a comfort to other people who are going through similar situations. I’d never heard of Lyme disease before I got it. So now, if I can raise awareness and offer others comfort at the same time, I’ll be happy.”
Sam And Billie: Sister Act premieres on Tuesday 19 August at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX
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