Kesha Reveals 'Horrifying' Medical Experience That Almost Killed Her

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Kesha has opened up about a recent “horrifying” medical experience, revealing that she “almost died” after a procedure to freeze her eggs.

Speaking in a Self cover story, the Praying singer admitted she “almost died in February” and was hospitalised for nine days. It’s taken “a couple of months” for Kesha to finally feel a full recovery.

Kesha froze her eggs last year. A few weeks later, she played in the Bahamas for a New Year’s Eve celebration. She recalled feeling too weak to walk after the performance and checked herself into the hospital.

As Self reports, Kesha had developed a rare yet severe complication from the fertility procedure, which doctors attributed, in part, to her weakened immune system – in the interview, Kesha also discussed her experiences with bulimia and common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), which is a common immunodeficiency disease that often leads to sufferers dealing with repeated infections.

Kesha decided to freeze her eggs, partly because her new album, Gag Order, was coming out, and she wanted more time to think about potentially bringing a child into the world and simply controlling her own reproductive health.

She explained, “I just was taking my reproductive health into my own hands. And I stand by everyone doing that and [honouring] your body.” You can read the full interview here.

On Gag Order, released last month, Kesha vowed to reject the “toxic positivity” that she felt defined her earlier music.

The soul-baring new album references her legal battle with ex-producer and label owner Dr Luke, who she alleged hurt her during an extended period of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and attempted to get out of the contract. While Kesha’s allegations against him were dropped in 2016, Dr Luke has countersued for defamation – that trial begins in July.

“It’s scary being vulnerable,” Kesha explained in a Rolling Stone interview. “The fact that I have compiled an entire record of these emotions, of anger, of insecurity, of anxiety, of grief, of pain, of regret, all of that is so nerve-racking — but it’s also so healing.”

"I wrote Tik Tok, and ‘the party don’t start ’til I walk in,’ so I almost felt like I was becoming a caricature of this toxic positivity.

“We live in a culture where I feel like we always show our best side. But Rick Rubin created the most beautiful, safe space for me to really dive into these emotions.”

You can listen to Gag Order here.