Her family is intensely famous, so it makes sense that every move Bella Hadid makes will be publicized. But somehow, fans forgot all about the time she was arrested for a DUI.
It was all the way back in 2014, and Bella was underage at the time, but there were headlines just the same. The thing is, Bella later gave an interesting excuse for why she wound up with a DUI, though fans aren't really buying it.
Bella Hadid Blamed Her Lyme Disease Diagnosis For The DUI
When Bella's DUI came out, her mom Yolanda basically blasted her daughter. At the time, since Yolanda was front and center on 'Real Housewives,' there was some drama with her daughter's misdeed.
And yet Yolanda was kind of the focal point; Bella hadn't really become internationally famous, yet.
But as fans pointed out, Yolanda and Bella both seemed to play off the DUI by suggesting that Bella's diagnosis of Lyme disease was somehow to blame for her apparent reckless driving.
The thing is, Lyme disease doesn't seem to have anything to do with someone underage overdoing it on illicit substances. Or does it?
Could Lyme Disease Be To Blame For Bella's DUI?
Though Lyme is something that a few different celebrities have spoken up about, given their personal struggles with it, not much is really publicized other than the pain involved with the disease.
But based on Healthline's description of Lyme, most people who contract it will recover promptly with intensive treatment. Though the source does say that symptoms can vary, and overlap, it's very rare for the symptoms to continue after the "simple" treatment ends.
Yet some people experience post Lyme disease syndrome; 10 to 20 percent of people have lingering symptoms. Plus, Healthline confirms, the disease can impact a person's "mobility and cognitive skills."
It may not seem too far off to assume that Lyme disease could have some impact on a person's ability to drive, or complete other tasks involving quick reaction time. But is that what happened in the case of Bella Hadid's DUI?
Bella Hadid's BAC Level Was Very High
Though it's possible that the symptoms of Lyme can manifest differently in different people, it can't exactly imitate a high blood alcohol content level. Sources reported that Bella Hadid's BAC was .14 when she was pulled over for the DUI back in 2014.
Lyme disease doesn't seem to cause a false positive on a BAC test, based on medical sources' explanation of the condition. And that's the issue fans take with the Hadid family trying to explain away Bella's arrest.
Rumors Suggest Bella Wasn't As Sick As Fans Thought
But there's another extenuating circumstance that has fans saying Bella and her mom were, to put it bluntly, full of it. Fans point to Bella's dad, Mohamed, saying that his kids (Bella and Anwar) never had Lyme disease.
The thing is, no one's sure who to believe when it comes to accounts of what Mohamed did or didn't say. Sources reported that Mohamed Hadid told Lisa Vanderpump that Anwar and Bella did not have Lyme disease.
Mohamed later aimed to clarify by saying that he had told his friend the kids were "fine," not that they'd never been ill. After that, however, Mohamed declined to comment further, which effectively ended the conversation (but perhaps not the speculation).
But Yolanda's social media posts, Gigi's statements in support of her siblings, and Bella's admission that she "still" had Lyme suggest that there's no truth to whatever Lisa Vanderpump speculated about the family.
The fact that the family has horses, and that all three of those affected seemed to get the disease around the same time, explains how it all happened.
Other celebrities, like Justin Bieber, who battled Lyme in 2019, and Amy Schumer have had similarly painful experiences with the condition, so it's not as uncommon as some might assume.
Now, the only lingering question about Bella's diagnosis is why her family seemed to use it to try and defend her poor decision-making when she apparently got drunk and drove.
Critics Say Bella's Parents Were To Blame
Based on Yolanda Hadid's reaction to Bella's DUI (publicly shaming her with an open letter about her bad behavior), critics thought it was likely a lack of parenting that had the then-teen Bella driving under the influence.
Then again, a lot of teenagers get up to not-so-good deeds in their youth, only most of them don't have the consequences of those decisions splashed across the headlines.