Reality star Jenna Lyons has revealed that her hair and teeth are not real, as a result of her rare genetic disorder.
The Real Housewives of New York City (RHONYC) star, 55, opened up about living with Bloch-Sulzberger syndrome, which is also known as incontinentia pigmenti (IP). In some people, the condition can cause dental abnormalities, missing nails, and bald patches on the scalp (alopecia).
In an appearance on The View on Wednesday (19 July), Lyons said the disorder was the reason she entered the fashion world, because she “wanted to look better”.
“All my teeth are fake. I paid a lot of money for them. My hair is also fake. I can take it off. It’s like a hat, it’s not a wig,” she detailed.
“My eyelashes are fake. I have no eyebrows, and I also have scars all over my skin.
“I was really conscious. It’s one of the reasons I went into fashion. I wanted to look better. I was constantly trying to find ways to fit in,” the fashion designer, who was previously the executive creative director and president of J Crew, said.
Her condition led her to create her own range of false eyelashes, called Love Seen, because existing ones were too large and did not look natural on her.
“When I was doing a lot of red carpets, I kept trying to find eyelashes that looked good and they were just huge one me,” she recalled. “I couldn’t wear them.
“I remember talking to my makeup artist Troi Ollivierre and I was going on Oprah show actually and Oprah walked into the green room. He looked at me and he looked at her and he’s like, ‘Get back in that chair. We’re going to put some lashes on you and get some extensions’.
“Because she’s got a presence and I look like a wet rat,” she joked, adding that she “couldn’t find what I wanted, so I created a line of lashes that aren’t as over-the-top”.
IP is believed to affect just 1.2 in 100,000 individuals globally, with most patients being female. It is characterised by abnormalities in skin, eyes, teeth and the central nervous system.
According to the National Organisation for Rare Diseases, the most common symptom of IP are changes in the skin. Patients may develop blisters and boils that may turn into lesions that look like warts, as well as thick scabs and areas of darkened skin due to increased pigmentation.
During the interview, Lyons also spoke out about being publicly outed as a lesbian while in the midst of her divorce from former husband Vincent Mazeau in 2011, before she was ready to let the world know.
Lyons, the first openly gay New York Housewife, said she was “so overwhelmed with everything that was happening in my life” that, when asked to confirm if she was a lesbian at the time, she “just said yes”.
Jenna Lyons attends as Tonic.xyz presents the Preview Party for William Mapan's "Strands of Solitude" Collection at Jenna Lyons', co-hosted by Kate Berry, Christy Turlington Burns, and Every Mother Counts on March 09, 2023— (Getty Images for Tonic.xyz)
She said that the experience was “so hard” because she had not yet come out to her family and friends.
“I hadn’t really been in the public eye that much, it was all still new for me, and I didn’t expect anyone to care about what I was doing in my personal life and all of a sudden everyone cared,” she said.
“It was so shocking to me. I was also not sure what the hell I was doing. It was all so new. I mean, I wasn’t [officially out] in any way, but I remember… the Post was calling out PR team, and they said, ‘Listen, can you get on the phone, we’re going to run this story, would you like to confirm or deny?’
“I jut said, ‘Confirm’ and it was like an out-of-body experience.”
At the time, Lyons was in a relationship with Courtney Crangi. They have since separated, and Lyons is currently dating photographer Cass Bird. She has one child, son Beckett, whom she shares with Mazeau.
