Courtney Love revealed she “almost died” during a 2019 health crisis that left her hospitalized and frail.
The Hole frontwoman, 62, detailed the ordeal in an Instagram video posted Friday, explaining that her body “just exploded” after she relocated to the UK that year. Love said she dropped to roughly 100 pounds, lost all her hair, and faced doctors who told her she was going to die.
“It just exploded, and I was in hospitals a lot. I almost died,” she shared in the video.
“I lost all my hair,” she continued. “I was about 100 pounds, and they told me I was going to die, and I didn’t believe them.”
Love attributed her refusal to accept the dire prognosis to a lifelong pattern of questioning authority that began in childhood.
“I used to like, pattern-interrupt the adults, and they’d tell me ‘red.’ They’d say ‘red was blue,’ and then I’d see blue, but blue was blue,” she said.
“So now that I gaslight myself that maybe, maybe they were right and red was blue, and then I would see purple, and my head would explode,” she continued. “Like f–king cope with that sh–t, right? I think some of you can relate to that. And then, anyway, I never really lost my ability to see that f–king that ‘red was red,’ despite them telling me that ‘red was blue.'”
“And so when they said you’re gonna die, I just didn’t believe them.”
The singer did not disclose the specific cause of her illness in the video. She noted only that she “somehow” recovered and is now healthy.
“I’m healthy, which is amazing,” she said.
Love used the video to update fans on her long-awaited new music, urging patience as she figures out how to release material she recorded during her hospitalization. She wrote in the caption that she believed at the time it would be her final record.
“When I made it, I believed this was my last record so I made the record I always wanted to make,” she wrote on Instagram. “I was in the hospital mostly but when I wasn’t all I did was write & record it. I want to tour more than anything. & I want to sing.”
She added, “I’m not going to tell people red is blue anymore. Thank you for giving me the grace I need to prepare how to enter the world again.”
In the viral moment that prompted her disclosure, Love had kept her illness private until this video. She explained she did not want to be public about being sick but now feels ready to return.
“I will be back, I wasn’t public about being sick. I don’t want to be public about being sick. You know, I’m fine now,” she insisted in the video.
“I’m just figuring how to roll things out,” she explained. “Things are great right now.”
The health scare followed her move from Los Angeles to London. In March 2025, Love said she had permanently relocated to England to escape Donald Trump’s second presidential term.
Her last album release was 2010’s “Nobody’s Daughter,” technically a Hole record though she was the only band member involved. She has teased new solo material for years.
Love’s 2019 hospitalization was not her first public health struggle. In 2020, she revealed on Instagram that she had nearly died the previous summer from anemia, weighing just 97 pounds and being “stigmatized for being an addict for 9 months by many ill-equipped drs, backwards drs and quacks.” She credited cannabis and CBD oil with removing “ALMOST ALL the physical symptoms.”