Lifestyle

'IT'S DEBILITATING'

Model, 32, Shares Heartbreaking Details of Her Chronic Illness Battle

The Victoria’s Secret runway model said her symptoms were dismissed by doctors.

Cailey PetschHealth and Beauty Intern

PublishedJul 16, 2026, 8:15 PM EDT

UpdatedJul 16, 2026, 8:21 PM EDT

Updated Jul 16, 2026, 8:21 PM EDTPublished Jul 16, 2026, 8:15 PM EDT

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Victoria’s Secret model Barbara Palvin opened up about her struggle with a painful chronic condition.

​The 32-year-old supermodel, known for strutting the runway in wings and lingerie, revealed the severe symptoms she experienced while living with endometriosis on a July 14 episode of the Wildmen Podcast.

​​“I would throw up from the pain, and I would be drenched in sweat. I would have to change shirts,” Palvin told the hosts, her husband, Big Daddy actor Dylan Sprouse, 33, and writer Brendan Columbus, 34.

Endometriosis is a condition in which tissue that is similar to the one lining the uterus grows outside of the uterus. It can cause debilitating pelvic pain, heavy periods, and chronic fatigue, as well as cysts that may affect fertility.

Palvin added that her endometriosis caused her to lose sleep.

“I was always suffering during the night—Dylan knows—sleepless nights, suffering on the floor, dying from pain, and no medication would work,” Palvin, who is currently pregnant with the couple’s first child, said.

Adding, “And I would go to gynecologists and try to get diagnosed, and they would always say, ‘Oh, no, you’re fine, you’re fine. It’s just [your] period.’”

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“They’re like, yeah, it’s period cramps,” Palvin quoted the doctors. “They were like, ‘Oh, change your lifestyle, you know, work out more, strengthen the muscle.’”

​Eventually, she visited a specialist and managed her condition with “six pills a day.”

​Sprouse, who witnessed his wife’s struggles, said that when the pain wasn’t manageable, it was debilitating.

“It fluctuated, sometimes you’d have a month where it was OK... And then the next month it was like keel over screaming pain to the point of her feeling nauseous, wanting to throw up, like really gnarly,” Sprouse said.

​Sprouse and Palvin married in 2023 and revealed on May 14 at the Cannes Film Festival that they are expecting a baby due in August.

​“We knew that we wanted to get pregnant, but we also knew, because I have endometriosis, we knew we wanted to get that surgery done before we start trying,” Palvin said.

​In 2025, Palvin revealed in an Instagram post that she underwent surgery to minimize the symptoms of her endometriosis.

Sprouse noted that research around endometriosis is still limited, but the doctors told the couple that the time after Palvin’s surgery would be her “most fertile time.”

​“Yeah, they kind of cleared out everything in the surgery,” Palvin said, adding that it made their chance of growing their family higher.

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Cailey PetschHealth and Beauty Intern

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