Nick Jonas shed light on his decades-long journey with type 1 diabetes, revealing what he’s “grateful” for yet “resents” about the disease—which he was diagnosed with in 2005—in an open letter.
Nick Jonas is sharing insight into his health.
More than two decades after he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, the Jonas Brothers member detailed his complicated relationship with the disease in an open letter to his “old friend.”
“How long has it been? 21 years. 21 years, and you haven’t changed a bit,” Jonas wrote in the letter, which is a part of Dexcom’s A Letter to Diabetes initiative. “It’s funny how often we talk. Every few minutes, honestly. Staring at my phone to see where my glucose is. Reaching for my pump to bolus because I’m about to eat something with 17 carbs.”
“Those are just a couple of the hundreds of little decisions I make every week,” he continued. “Most people never notice them. But they add up to a real relationship, because that’s what diabetes is. It’s an ongoing conversation between your body, your mind, and your devices.”
The “Burnin’ Up” singer noted that there are days it feels like he and his condition are “on the same team,” while on others it seems like his diabetes is on a “solo mission.”
As Jonas—dad to daughter Malti, 4, with wife Priyanka Chopra—put it, “In a lot of ways, that’s what family is like. You rely on each other, you push each other, and you know they’ll always be there.”
But when the “A Little Bit Longer” artist was first diagnosed with diabetes in November 2005 at age 13, its “unpredictability threw” him for a loop.
“I’d built my whole life around this unrealistic structure and belief that I was in control,” he wrote. “You took that apart over the years, bit by bit. Part of me is grateful I learned that lesson. Part of me resents you for it. Full stop.”
Jonas then admitted, “There are days I wonder what life would feel like without you.”
That said, the Camp Rock star emphasized that being diagnosed with diabetes brought him something unexpected: a strong “community.”
“I always struggled to feel like I belonged anywhere,” Jonas recalled. “At school, I felt misunderstood. In most circles, for that matter. Through my childhood and youth, that was the theme. It wasn’t until I started talking openly about life with type 1, and meeting other people who were living it too, that I finally felt like I belonged somewhere.”
And while the “Jealous” singer “never wanted” to been painted as a “victim,” he continues to be open about his “truth” to help others feel “a little less alone.”
“I share my story for the 13-year-old who just got diagnosed and is lying in a hospital bed, scared to death,” Jonas noted. “I want them to be able to look up and see someone out there living their dreams while managing all of this, every single day.”
To see what other stars had to say about their journeys with diabetes, keep reading…
Nick Jonas can hit up the waffle house with an appetite and the know-how to manage his glucose levels.
The Jonas Brothers member has become one of the most high-profile stars with type 1 diabetes, with his diagnosis at 13 years old coming right before the sibling trio hit it big on the Disney Channel and with their 2006 debut album It's About Time.
Years later, Nick co-founded the nonprofit Beyond Type 1. Per its website, the organization “aims to change what it means to live with chronic illness” by “bridging the gap from diagnosis to cure, empowering people to live well today and funding a better tomorrow.”
Since his diagnosis, brothers Kevin and Joe have had Nick’s back as he monitors his health while keeping up with their rock-and-roll schedule.
“They’re incredibly supportive, and really help normalize it,” Nick explained to TODAY.com in 2023. “They understand that if I was irritable for an hour, that it’s probably because my glucose is high. And they give me grace, or make sure that if I’m starting to go low that I’ve got the juice I need or whatever at my disposal quickly.”
While a majority of people with type 1 diabetes are diagnosed in childhood, a stunned Lance Bass was in his 40s.
The *NSYNC singer detailed his diagnosis in a 2024 Instagram video, revealing he was previously misdiagnosed with type 2 diabetes, when in reality, he had developed type 1.5 diabetes.
Initially, "I had a difficult time getting my glucose levels under control, even though I made adjustments to my diet, my medications and my workout routine,” Lance said. “Things just weren't adding up.”
He now wears a Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitor attached to his body. It takes readings of blood glucose levels every few minutes and sends alerts to a phone or receiver if it's changing rapidly so the person can potentially eat something carb-heavy if it's falling too fast or give themselves extra insulin if it's rising.
Meanwhile, Lance and husband Michael Turchin's twins, Alexander and Violet, 3, have taken an interest in his diabetes management routines as they play doctor at home.
"I'll show them the little needle that sticks out, and they just think it's fascinating," he said about his blood glucose monitor. “They're not scared of it at all. I explain over and over why I do this and what diabetes is, and you know, I don't know how much of that they're understanding. But you know, eventually they will."
Este Haim, seen above rocking her CGM while also rocking out onstage during a Haim concert alongside sisters Danielle Haim and Alana Haim, revealed how living with T1D has impacted her love life.
“I had a guy break up with me because I said that there was a possibility that our kid would have diabetes," she told British GQ in June 2025. "He was like, ‘Then why are we here?’ And I was like, ‘What?!'“
But it wasn’t the first time Haim endured disappointing reactions to her chronic illness, which she’s been navigating since her diagnosis at 14 years old.
“I was basically a social pariah for a very long time,” she told Beyond Type 1 in 2019. “You know, I was just the kid with diabetes in school that passes out and no one knows why and the girl with diabetes that smelled like orange juice all the time.”
Thankfully, like Nick Jonas, Este’s siblings have consistently shown up for her as she navigates tour life. “I’m lucky that I have Danielle and Alana to be my support," Haim said, "and when I am having a bad day, a bad week, a bad month, they’re always the first people to be like, ‘Dude we got you. Whatever you need. We’re going to get through this. Let’s get you a healthy meal. Let’s not have pizza after the show tonight. Let’s go get you something good so that you don’t wake up and your blood sugar is 350.’”
Bret Michaels has detailed the thorns poking out of his rosy career.
In a June 2025 Instagram post, the Poison frontman explained how living with type 1 diabetes might impact his tour schedule after a health scare.
“Unfortunately, the highs and lows of living with diabetes since I've been six years old occasionally just kick my butt,” Michaels wrote. “Last night, I went on stage and even added a song or two to the set to prove to myself & the fans that I could do it. At the end, my blood sugar walking off the stage was a real-life 39.”
Per the CDC, 70 mg / dL is considered low blood sugar for people with T1D—and severe low blood sugar begins at 54 mg / dL.
“I vow in the near future, I'm going to take that time needed,” he told fans. “And please forgive me if I have to move some of the shows around until I get this under control.
That’s not to say, Michaels hasn’t taken plenty of precautions along his decades-spanning career.
"I wake up and the first thing I do is check my constant glucose monitor," Michaels told People in 2024. "I take an injection and then the next thing I do is I get up and—good, bad or indifferent, no matter how I'm feeling—I get into a workout routine, and it helps to level the blood sugar out.”
He added, "And then I jump into the fun and the business of the day, and just try to take every day like that."
John Legend and Chrissy Teigen's son Miles
John Legend and Chrissy Teigen are proving to be extraordinary people when it comes to their son Miles' type 1 diagnosis.
The Cravings cookbook author detailed their shock upon discovering his T1D status on, after Miles was hospitalized for an unrelated health issue. “I've learned since then that this is how so many young children end up being diagnosed with type-1," she wrote on Instagram in July 2024, "going to the hospital for something completely different."
Teigen—also mom to Lunda, Esti and Wren—later shared how this inspired her to become an advocate with advanced screening for T1D. “I was blown away by the fact that not only did I not know that screening was an option when I first had children—I have four kids by the way—I didn’t hear about early screening at any point during any of my pregnancies,” she said at the Women’s Health Lab panel in May 2025. “It would’ve made an incredible amount of difference.”
The Dancing With the Stars pro shared her Type 1 diabetes diagnosis in May 2024, and has since been open about the strength she's earned through her experience.
“It’s a hard diagnosis and it takes a lot of time and just thinking out of your life, but I think it’s made me stronger and more mature,” she told Woman’s World in a July 2025 interview. “I’m able to handle conflict and hard things in my life better, because I go through the management and just the hard things that come with type one diabetes.”
Plus, she added, “It brings me so much motivation every day, because I want to be an inspiration to others. I want to be an inspiration to young people or anyone with [any] type of diabetes, so if it really gives me that motivation every day that I’m doing it for them and not just for myself.”
Hoda Kotb got some breaking news about her daughter Hope in 2023.
Yet, the former Today anchor waited until after she left the morning show full-time to reveal her youngest child was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
“Hope is fine for most of the day. There are just moments where you have to watch her," she told former cohosts Craig Melvin and Savannah Guthrie when returning to Studio 1A in May 2025. "I was totaling it up—five minutes at breakfast, five minutes at lunch, five minutes at dinner, sometimes overnight. Add that up, that's a half-hour.”
“So, for 23 and a half hours,” Kotb added. “She's every other kid. So, I try to remember that."
Kate Moss' model daughter Lila Moss celebrated the debut of some diabetes-chic accessories made for a groundbreaking Barbie.
A continuous glucose monitor and insulin pump are signature features of Mattel’s first-ever doll with type 1 diabetes. As the company noted in a July 2025 statement, its collaboration with Breakthrough T1D was "designed with inclusion and empathy at the core."
To celebrate the release, Mattel honored two type 1 diabetes ambassadors, Peloton instructor Robin Arzón and Moss, presenting them with their own one-of-a-kind dolls.
Upon the Barbie’s reveal, Moss wrote on Instagram, "This has been such a special project to be a part of, I hope this can encourage anyone living with Type 1 to not be afraid of wearing their pump proudly and that it helps to raise awareness on why we have them and what they do for us!"
