Carrie Ann Inaba is pulling the curtain back on moments she quietly dealt with Sjögren’s disease amid her career as a judge on Dancing With the Stars.
“Usually, I can push through, but last season, yeah, week one, I was going through a flare up, and I was not able to attend the very first night of competition for the first time in 20 years,” Carrie Ann, 58, exclusively told Us while promoting her partnership with Novartis. “It was the first show I’ve missed since I started the show back in the day.”
Carrie Ann recalled being “heartbroken” that she couldn’t be alongside fellow judges Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli in the ballroom at the time. Carrie Ann, who has become a regular fixture on the show after beginning her judging stint during the season 1 premiere in June 2005, admitted to feeling “afraid that maybe that was going to be the end.”
“I think a lot of people who deal with something like Sjögren’s disease and are battling chronic illness go through these moments where you wonder if you can keep going, if you can keep your job,” she said. “That’s why it’s so important to have conversations like this about it.”
For Carrie Ann, it took about a decade to receive a formal diagnosis in 2013. She recalled feeling “very alone” and “almost like [she] was going crazy” while battling the disease, which leads to the body accidentally attacking its own tissues. Per the Mayo Clinic, Sjögren’s disease can affect glands that make moisture in the eyes and mouth. Symptoms include chronic fatigue, muscle aches, joint pain, dry skin, eyes and mouth as well as rashes, brain fog and headaches.
Carrie Ann shared that she hopes her partnership with Novartis raises awareness about this “invisible disease.”
“One thing that is interesting about Sjögren’s disease is that it used to be called Sjögren syndrome, and in the last few years it was reclassified as a disease,” she explained. “What’s helpful about that is that now we can talk about it and people take it more seriously. Not only do your doctors take it more seriously, but the insurance companies will take it more seriously and your employers will take it more seriously. Like, I was telling the people at ABC when they allowed me to stay home, the way they handled that, I just kept thinking, ‘Wow, this is going to help so many people.’”
She continued, “Because people live with Sjögren’s disease, they’re going to know that they can speak up, and this is how you show up for people who have very real, very serious, and very challenging disease. This is how you show up for them. I just was like, ‘Oh, this is a big moment.’ So in a weird way, it turned out to be a gift.”
