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'eating me alive'

‘Mormon Wives’ Star Says She’s ‘Barely Surviving’ Due to Chronic Illness

The 26-year-old says it has “ruined” her body and mind.

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

PublishedMar 19, 2026, 9:09 PM EDT

UpdatedMar 19, 2026, 9:10 PM EDT

Updated Mar 19, 2026, 9:10 PM EDTPublished Mar 19, 2026, 9:09 PM EDT

After years of mysterious symptoms, Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Mikayla Matthews says she has finally identified the cause of her severe skin rashes.

“This condition has stolen literally everything from me,” Mikayla Matthews wrote on her Instagram stories on Wednesday, as she answered questions from fans.

In her online Q&A, the 26-year-old social media influencer opened up about her chronic condition, which causes red skin rashes, sharing her experiences both on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and her social platforms.

“I had like a year and a half where I couldn’t look people in the eyes, I felt like if I didn’t look them in the eyes then they couldn’t see my skin,” she wrote in her stories, adding, “it’s something I’m still working on.”

Matthews said her condition prevented her from pursuing jobs and socializing, writing, “I have said no to so many fun events, premieres, and opportunities because of my skin.”

“But I show up when I can because I want you guys that are in similar situations to feel seen and know that life doesn’t have to stop when shitty things are happening to you,” she added, signing with a heart.

“What’s your condition called?” one fan asked.

“‘CIRS’ chronic inflammatory response syndrome. Brought on [by] prolonged exposures to toxins (mold),” Matthews wrote. The condition has “ruined just everything in my body. Nerves, skin, hair, brain, gut, liver, hormones, etc,” she said.

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Mold exposure has been proven to pose a serious health risk and can cause a range of symptoms, from fatigue to skin issues, according to UCLA Health, though CIRS itself is still being studied and is not yet widely recognized as a medical diagnosis.

Matthews recently moved out of her house and wrote on Instagram that she would share more details soon.

“How do you handle the day-to-day stress of being a working mom and raising kiddos?” one person asked.

“I don’t,” Matthews replied with a crying emoji. “I’m genuinely just barely surviving.”

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“The mom guilt has eaten me alive. Chronic illness is all consuming and I haven’t been able to show up as the mom I want to be for the last couple years. I just want to feel like myself again,” she wrote with a broken heart emoji.

Matthews has four children with her husband, Jace Terry, including Beckham, 8; Haven, 5; Tommie, 3; and Lottie, 8 months.

The couple met when Matthews was 16, and found out she was pregnant less than a month later. They married in 2018, six months after welcoming their first child.

Another person asked, “Do you want to get better and work through your trauma, or do you just want to sit in it forever?”

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“Considering my skin still looks like this 90% of the time, I have no choice but to sit in it,” Matthews wrote over a photo of her face, showing a red, spotty rash around her cheeks, jaw, and neck.

Matthews has opened up about her journey trying to process the trauma of surviving childhood sexual abuse on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

“It’s frustrating to me when people don’t understand that going through any chronic illness is traumatic,” she added in her stories.

Matthews also noted that she avoids wearing cosmetics whenever possible.

“I try to limit putting makeup on as much as possible which is hard with filming cause I try to cover up my flares,” she wrote, adding, “So on my off days filming I wear zero makeup.”

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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