Bijou Phillips has been hospitalized amid an urgent need for a second kidney transplant.
Phillips, 45, confirmed the news on Wednesday, February 11 via Instagramtelling followers that he is looking for a living donor while currently in stable condition at UCLA Health after battling health complications from his first transplant. Phillips, who received his first transplant in 2017, he went back to dialysis after his kidney failed.
“I’m asking as a friend, sister, aunt, and most importantly, single mom to an amazing, brave daughter. I need a kidney,” wrote Phillips, who revealed that she “was born with underdeveloped kidneys and spent the first three months of her life in the NICU on dialysis.”
“In 2017, I received the incredible gift of a kidney from a dear friend. This transplant gave me 8 precious years to be a mother to my daughter, but since then I have had many complications, including the BK virus which led to both cellular and antibody rejection,” she continued. “I am currently under the care of Dr. Anjay Rastogi at UCLA and am back on dialysis. Please help me find a living donor so I can spend more time with my daughter, family and friends.”
Phillips concluded the post by noting that “time is of the essence.”
Before her transplant in 2017, Phillips was hospitalized with a blood infection. Her husband at the time, Danny Mastersontalked about Phillips’ health struggles and how it affected his life.
“Bijou was born with small kidneys and has been quietly dealing with kidney disease for the past five years, including being on the transplant list,” she said in a statement to Entertainment Tonight at the time. “In an effort to heal his body, he has led a stress-free life on a vegan diet that ultimately wasn’t enough, and has been privately undergoing weekly dialysis.”
Phillips filed for divorce from Masterson, 49, in September 2023 after 12 years of marriage, days after Masterson was sentenced to 30 years in prison at his retrial for sexual assault. He was found guilty of two counts of forced rape for the incidents that occurred in the early 2000s. The actor has vehemently denied the allegations since he was arrested and charged in 2020.
Phillips, who shares 12-year-old daughter Fianna with Masterson, made reference to her health problems when she defended Masterson’s character before his sentencing.
Danny Masterson and Bijou Phillips married in 2011 after meeting at a celebrity poker tournament two years earlier. In March 2017, Masterson, who welcomed daughter Fianna with Phillips in 2014, was accused of sexual assault in the early 2000s by several women. As a result, he was removed from Netflix’s The Ranch. (…)
“I am writing to ask that you consider this information when sentencing my husband, Danny Masterson,” she wrote in a letter to judge Charlaine Olmedowhich was obtained in early 2023 by The Underground Bunker, which specializes in Scientology news. “I depended on Danny to take care of me and our daughter. I always felt it would be okay because Danny is an amazing father. He was devoted to our daughter, read her books, took her for walks and ballet lessons. I never heard him complain. The two of us were inseparable.”
Phillips, who married Masterson in 2011, said she and Fianna they were “heartbroken” by his absence.
“More than anything, he loves his dad. When he calls us every day, he ends with ‘I love you too much dad,'” he continued. “We need him more than you can imagine. I know he’s been convicted of serious crimes. But the man I married has been nothing but an extraordinary husband to me and a devoted father to our daughter.”
After Phillips ended her marriage to Masterson and was awarded full custody in October 2023, a source said. we that Phillips focused on her future, sharing, “Bijou is trying to put the whole sordid mess behind her and focus on building a new chapter.”