Selling Sunset’s Amanza Smith reveals she only FaceTimed children while she was hospitalized for a rare bone infection so as not to scare them: “I had tubes coming out of me”
Amanza Smith is on the mend after a debilitating and potentially fatal spinal infection.
The 46-year-old Selling Sunset star was hospitalized for more than a month in June after being diagnosed with osteomyelitis, a rare bone infection.
The reality star said she kept daughter Noah, 13, and son Breaker, 12, at a distance while she was in hospital.
“I had tubes coming out of me — oxygen and an IV, one in my arm, one in my hand, and a catheter,” she told People.
“I thought, ‘They can’t see me like that because it scares them.'”
On the mend: Amanza Smith is on the mend after a debilitating and potentially fatal spinal infection. The 46-year-old Selling Sunset star was hospitalized for more than a month in June after being diagnosed with osteomyelitis, a rare bone infection
Amanza, who had been suffering from the pain at home, was quickly rushed to the hospital following her collapse.
“At home, they saw that I was in so much pain that I didn’t want them to come,” the concerned mother said.
A friend lived with her children and communicated with them via FaceTime.
“Sometimes they thought I might have lied to them. I left things out because I didn’t want them to think there was anything worse going on.’
Amanza was discharged after 31 days in the hospital and returned home on July 3.
“When I first saw my son, he fell into my arms and started crying,” said the single mother.
“He said, ‘Mom, I was so scared you wouldn’t come home.’ ‘I’d never seen him cry like that before.”
“I realized he was holding everything back — and they don’t have their father,” she explained.
FaceTime: The reality star told People she kept her two children away from the hospital and used FaceTime to communicate with them. “I had tubes coming out of me – I thought, ‘They can’t see me like that because it scares them.'”
Emotional: Amanza had an emotional reunion when she returned home on July 3. She is the only mother of her children since their father, former NFL player Ralph Brown, disappeared in 2019 (pictured in Santa Monica, California in December 2022)
Changes: Amanza said her experience has led to some changes. “I want to eat healthier. There is who I am and there is who I want to be. I will never take my mobility for granted again.
The children’s father, Amanza’s ex-husband, former NFL player Ralph Brown, went missing in 2019.
“The fear of a parent going away and not coming back is there because that’s what happened to their father. ‘I would have picked him up if I could, to let him know I wasn’t going anywhere.’
The interior designer still has work to do as she aims for a full recovery and admits the experience has had a lasting effect on her.
“I don’t know if ‘reality check’ is the right word, but it makes you want to change things in your life to make sure you’re alive to your children forever,” she explained.
“I want to eat healthier. There is who I am and there is who I want to be. I will never take my mobility for granted again. “If I can walk and jog and do Pilates or ballet again, I hope to stick with it because I plan to live to be 107.”