Rebel Wilson, 44, has opened up about a terrifying brush with death that happened when she was a teenager.
The Hollywood actress revealed that the trauma happened when she contracted malaria at the age of 18 while traveling in Mozambique.
She said she contracted the life-threatening disease after being bitten by ‘hundreds’ of mosquitoes.
‘When I was 18, I got malaria. “I woke up one morning in an African bush and I had like a hundred mosquito bites on my face,” the Bridesmaids star said in an interview with We weekly.
“I was in the hospital for two weeks,” she added. ‘I could have died from it, it was very, very bad.’
Rebel Wilson, 44, has opened up about a terrifying brush with death that happened to the Bridesmaids star when she was just a teenager. (Rebel pictured with her fiancé Ramona Agruma)
Elsewhere in the chat, Rebel joked that the incident was part of the reason why she suffers from ‘bug-xiety’.
‘I’ve always been afraid of insects…’ [since] “We grew up in Australia where we have a lot of insects,” she said.
Discussing the terrifying experience in 2019, Rebel said she had not taken any precautions against contracting malaria, which is transmitted through mosquito bites.
The Hollywood fan favorite revealed the trauma happened when she contracted malaria after being bitten by mosquitoes while traveling in Mozambique at the age of 18. Pictured: Rebel at the Australian Theater for Young People in 2002
Rebel told Us Weekly that after being bitten on the face by hundreds of mosquitoes, she spent two weeks in the hospital and “could have died.”
She was working with a charity in Africa at the time when she contracted malaria, which can cause symptoms such as high fever and seizures.
“They tried to give me pills but I heard they can cause mental problems – so I ended up being the stupid person who got the disease (malaria),” she said on an episode of the Aussies in Hollywood podcast.
It comes after Rebel revealed she has yet to meet fiancé Ramona Agruma’s parents for a heartbreaking reason.
During an interview on the Today show in the US, Rebel, who started dating Ramona in June 2022 before the pair got engaged months later, explained that her partner comes from a conservative background.
“Ramona was born in Latvia, and it is not as LGBTQ+ friendly as other countries,” she said.
Rebel recently revealed that she has yet to meet fiancé Ramona Agruma’s parents. The lovebirds are pictured with their child Royce Lillian Elizabeth Wilson
“There are still parts of the world that are not so accepting.”
She added that the couple will soon be heading to Europe for a vacation and she hopes this will allow her to finally meet her future in-laws and introduce their 19-month-old daughter Royce in person.
‘I’m very excited to meet them because I know they are very smart. Ramona’s mother is a doctor. Roycie is the real icebreaker. They FaceTimed her.”
Earlier this month, Rebel admitted that while she was “lucky” that her family accepted her relationship, her partner hasn’t had such a comfortable ride.
Rebel and Romona welcomed Royce via surrogate in 2022.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ programme, Rebel said: ‘I’m lucky in my case, it went very, very well… My grandparents, who are in their 90s, think it’s so cool.’
“Ramona’s family, not so much. Her mother has thankfully recovered, her father is still not talking to her, but we hope that will change,” she added.
The actress was in the process of using a surrogate mother to have a child when she first met Ramona, and was grateful that her partner quickly accepted her family plans.
‘I was already planning to use a surrogate mother to have a child. I had done several rounds of IVF and I had had one embryo transfer, which unfortunately didn’t work.’
“Almost right when I met Ramona, I was planning the second embryo transfer and I thought, ‘Honey, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’m going to have a kid around November,’” she said. said.
“Ramona just looked at me and said, ‘Well, I love you and if you have a child, I will love your child exactly the same way.’
The SAG Award nominee and her fiancé Ramona Agruma welcomed Royce Lillian Elizabeth Wilson via surrogate in 2022.