Andie MacDowell Reveals Piriformis Syndrome Diagnosis: 'I Thought I Was Going to Have to Have Hip Replacement'

Mar. 15, 2025

Andie MacDowell.Photo:Dave Kotinsky/Getty

Dave Kotinsky/Getty

Andie MacDowellis opening up about her health.

During an appearance onThe Drew Barrymore Showon Thursday, Jan. 23, theFour Weddings and a Funeralstar, 66, revealed she’d been diagnosed with piriformis syndrome.

“I have piriformis syndrome, so it’s a muscle that kind of clamps down on my sciatic nerve, and it was shooting down my leg,” MacDowell told Barrymore, 49.

“I thought I was going to have to have hip replacement, thank God, my hips are fine,” the actress added.

Insisting she’s working toward improving her health, MacDowell shared, “I have to work my tiny little bottom and my hips. I have to work the bottom and work my hip. I just do it every day,” adding that it “doesn’t hurt anymore," calling it “a miracle.”

Andie MacDowell on ‘The Drew Barrymore Show’.Drew Barrymore/Youtube

Drew Barrymore/Youtube

According to theNational Institutes of Health(NIH), piriformis syndrome “is a rare neuromuscular condition that occurs when the piriformis muscle in the buttocks presses on the sciatic nerve.”

“I think as you age, lift weights, work with a [personal trainer] PT person to build your muscles,” MacDowell continuing while discussing aging with Barrymore, whom she starred in the 1994 movieBad Girlswith.

MacDowell explained that she’d been riding her indoor bike “like a crazy person,” perE! News, adding, “It’s not appropriate for my body, and I ended up with bad knees and a bad hip … I thought I was literally falling apart.”

Andie MacDowell attends PEOPLE and Hallmark Media’s conversation with the stars of Hallmark Channel’s ‘The Way Home’.Mike Coppola/Getty

Mike Coppola/Getty

Elsewhere during herDrew Barrymore Showinterview, MacDowell also spoke aboutloving the simple life in South Carolinanow that her kids have left home.

The actress sharesdaughters Margaret Qualley, 30, and Rainey Qualley, 35— both of whom have followed in her acting footsteps — and son Justin Qualley, 39, with her ex-husband, Paul Qualley, 66.

“I’m happier now than I have been in a long time,” MacDowell shared on the show.

“I moved to South Carolina, and I really, I’m taking good care of myself. It took me forever,” she went on. “Once my kids left, I felt this huge void in my life, because they were so important to me.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

MacDowell credited her daughter Margaret for giving her the boost she needed to take the next step in her life.

“Margaret really was kinda telling me I was supposed to be having the time of my life, but I wasn’t,”The Way Homestar said. “But now I am. I’m having the time of my life now. It’s really good.”

source: people.com