Billie Eilish reveals she had COVID-19 over the summer: “It is because of the vaccine that I’m fine”

ABC/Randy Holmes

Billie Eilish has revealed that she had a breakthrough case of COVID-19 over the summer.

During an interview with The Howard Stern Show, as captured by the site Mediaite, the “Happier than Ever” singer shared her experience with the virus, which she called “miserable.”

“I didn’t die, and I wasn’t gonna die, but that does not take away from how miserable it was,” Eilish said. “I mean, it was terrible. I still have side effects. I was sick for, like, two months almost.”

Eilish came down with COVID in August, as the Delta variant was circulating through the U.S. She credits being vaccinated for helping her get through.

“I want it to be clear that it is because of the vaccine that I’m fine,” Eilish said. “I think if I weren’t vaccinated I would’ve, like, died.”

Eilish then added that, in the “scheme of COVID,” which has killed close to 800,000 people in the U.S., her experience was “not bad,” but she still “felt horrible.”

“When I say it’s ‘bad,’ it’s not, like, ‘Oh my god, I was gonna die of COVID and the vaccine doesn’t work,'” Eilish said. “The vaccine’s f***ing amazing, and it also saved [my brother] FINNEAS from getting it, it saved my parents from getting it, saved my friends from getting it.”

The subject of Eilish’s health had come up in the interview after Stern noticed that Eilish sounded sick after hosting and performing on last weekend’s Saturday Night Live. Eilish shared that she had just tested negative for COVID and just has a cold, which she says she might have gotten from SNL creator Lorne Michaels.

“Lorne was sick,” she said. “Coughing everywhere.”

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