'Selling Sunset' Star Vanessa Villela Speaks Out About Debilitating Long-Haul COVID-19 Symptoms

You won't find reality star Vanessa Villela enjoying Christmas dinner this year.

The TV personality from the hit Netflix show “Selling Sunset” suffers from long-haul COVID, and finding something she can eat is just one of her challenges.

“A lot of foods that I smell or taste, they smell or taste like sewage or like rotten meat. Or like garbage,” Villela said.

“So I get nauseous and then I cannot eat,” she continued.

Villela contracted COVID-19 back in August. She missed five weeks shooting for “Selling Sunset” and she has never fully recovered. 

Researchers say up to 30% of all COVID-19 patients like Villela live with a roller coaster of symptoms for months, including extreme fatigue, headache, insomnia, brain fog, breathing problems and hair loss.

“I started showering one day, and then when I was washing my hair, I started to pull out a lot of hair and I’m like what?” Villela said.

“It gets to a point when you are like when, I don't know when is it going to end?” she continued.

Andrea Tomasek would also like an answer to that question.

“Christmas Eve this year is going to be my 21-month anniversary of having symptoms of COVID,” Tomasek said.

Incredibly, the 38-year-old Minnesota mom caught the virus in March 2020. 

“I feel like a completely different person on the inside, and it's not an improvement,” Tomasek said.

She has had a low-grade fever every day since she was stricken. 

Long-haul COVID-19 is now recognized as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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