Bella Hadid’s Friends ‘Don’t Understand What She’s Going Through’ As She Battles Chronic Lyme Disease

Bella Hadid is struggling with an ongoing battle with chronic lyme disease — and not everyone in her life can empathize with her, according to a source.

“There are certainly people who have let her down, friends that act like she’s not sick or change the subject when she brings it up,” a source tells Star. “They don’t understand what she’s going through.”

“It might look like she’s living this great, so-called ‘normal’ life, but a lot of the time she’s in agony,” the source explains. “She just hides it well.”

However, the source notes the 28-year-old model’s loved ones “have all been so supportive” throughout her journey, including mom Yolanda Hadid and brother Anwar, who both suffer from Lyme disease, as well as older sister Gigi Hadid.

The source says that the 61-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum in particular, is “always by her side.”

“Chronic Lyme disease, like Bella has, is especially tough because it’s so invisible,” the source explains. “People can look at her and not realize the suffering she’s enduring.”

Yolanda — who experienced a similar situation with her castmates, who expressed doubt about her condition on the hit Bravo series — shared her sentiments in a Thursday, September 18, Instagram post where she detailed the Orabella founder’s health struggles.

“As you will understand watching my Bella struggle in silence, has cut the deepest core of hopelessness inside me,” she penned in part. “The invisible disability of chronic neurological Lyme disease is hard to explain or understand for anyone.”

“There simply aren’t words big enough for the darkness, the pain, and the unknown hell you’ve lived through since your diagnosis in 2013,” Yolanda added. “You didn’t really live, you learned how to exist inside the jail of your own paralyzed brain.”