“The Bachelor” star Joey Graziadei is assuring fans that he is healthy amid concern for his yellow-colored eyes.
“Hi everyone, I hope you are having a beautiful day,” Graziadei, 28, said in an Instagram video on Thursday. “I want to jump on here really quick and talk about something that I am seeing a lot of comments about, which is Joey’s yellow eyes.”
Fans on social media quickly wondered about the hunky tennis pro’s health upon the “Bachelor” Season 28 premiere in January, wondering if the whites of his eyes appeared to be yellow or if was just their discolored TVs.
“So to give some context on that, I have to go all the way back to when I was in high school. I was sick for about a week and a half and my mom thought it would be a good idea to go to the doctor,” Graziadei continued, adding that he had blood work that revealed he had a high bilirubin count.
“That means that there could be something that was wrong with my liver,” the Pennsylvania native added. “So we went and I got a liver ultrasound, I went to other doctors, they found out that there was nothing that was necessarily wrong like hepatitis but they diagnosed me with something called Gilbert syndrome.”
Gilbert syndrome is an inherited condition that affects the liver’s ability to break down red blood cells. It can cause the skin and the whites of the eyes to have a yellow tinge due to the buildup of bilirubin.
Graziadei continued, “At the end of the day, I am told that I am healthy. It’s something that does affect the whites of my eyes. It makes it have those jaundice levels which is why they look a little bit more yellow. It’s something I want to pay attention to more going into this year.”
The hopeless romantic added that his yellowing eyes are “worse when I have stress or lack of sleep, which happens on a TV show.”
“I do appreciate everyone looking out for me and wondering if I’m OK,” he conculded. “But to my knowledge, I’m as OK as I can be and I will continue to look at it. So thank you very much.”
Graziadei has also gone viral for more lighthearted reasons. Kathie Lee Gifford hilariously responded Wednesday to the heartthrob admitting that he had “no idea” who she is.
He also suffered a now-infamous mixup between convicted felon Gypsy Rose Blanchard and late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“The Bachelor” airs Mondays at 8 pm. EST on ABC.