Bella Hadid seems to lead a fairy tale existence. She is a fashion model. Her mom, Yolanda Foster, was on of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Bella Hadid hangs out with Kendall Jenner and sister Gigi Hadid. She is dating American Music Award winner The Weeknd.

Sometimes looks can be deceiving. Under all the glitz and the glamor lies a very serious illness–one that has at times incapacitated her mother. Bella Hadid–like her mom–has Lyme disease, and it cost her one of her passions.

Bella Hadid, Yolanda Foster's daughter, discusses her own experience with #Lyme disease. https://t.co/X9xGz9wgIP

— LymeDisease.org (@Lymenews) November 25, 2015

Before her diagnosis, Bella Hadid was on the fast track to becoming an Olympian. She was working toward competing in the equestrian events at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

“It was a dark time (when I first got sick). It affected my memory so I suddenly wouldn’t remember how to drive to Santa Monica from Malibu where I lived. I couldn’t ride. I was just too sick. And I had to sell my horse because I couldn’t take care of it,” Bella says in a recent interview with the Evening Standard.

Determined to see the upside to her condition, Bella Hadid is grateful for her modeling career.

“If I’d had the chance to succeed in riding, I might not have modeled,” she says. “I didn’t know that I was going to get sick.”

She is also grateful for her boyfriend–The Weeknd–and how supportive and understanding he is of her illness.

She says he is “really good about me being sick.”

Bella Hadid Opens Up About Dating The Weeknd https://t.co/1lexmO0KsS pic.twitter.com/W0rdVWrqmI

— Harper's Bazaar (@harpersbazaarus) November 21, 2015

Bella Hadid felt the full effect of her disease during this fashion season.

“I used to be the last to go home at a party, now I’m the first,” she explains. “This was my first full (catwalk) season. I was so exhausted…I only did 13 shows. The show girls do, like, 12 shows a day. I only did one or two shows a day and I was like: ‘I need to go to sleep.'”

Did you know Bella Hadid suffered from Lyme disease? Not many people knew until her mom announced it to the media earlier this fall.

Kudos to The Weeknd for supporting Bella through this debilitating disease. It’s got to be difficult for someone so young to watch her peers out having fun, knowing she simply doesn’t have the energy to join in.