Film & TV3 min(s) read
Published 10:16 15 Apr 2026 GMT
Dermatologist and TV star Sandra Lee was taken to hospital after suffering a stroke on set.
Best known for her role as Dr. Pimple Popper, the 55-year-old opened up on her chilling health episode in a candid interview on Tuesday (April 14).
Lee, who hosts the popular reality show, is known for filming her sometimes gruelling dermatological procedures, which many social media users seem to enjoy watching.
Many of these videos fall into the 'satisfying watch' category, as they can include blackhead extractions or the removal of serious skin growths.
The original show enjoyed a successful eight-season stint on TLC from 2018, with Lee now heading up the Lifetime spin-off, 'Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out', which she was on set for when she suffered a stroke.
Speaking to People, she revealed: "It happened while I was filming the show, I had what I thought was a hot flash. I got super sweaty and didn’t feel like myself.”
She headed to her parents' house after filming, where problems didn't subside, as Lee instead felt a shooting pain in her leg and struggled to walk down the stairs.
Lee noticed that her symptoms were mostly affecting her left side, recalling: “I would hold my hand out, and it would just slowly collapse,
“I noticed that I had a tough time articulating and just enunciating. I thought, ‘Am I having a stroke?’”
Her father, who also happens to be a dermatologist, told her to go to the emergency room, where she had an MRI scan and was told that she had suffered from an ischemic stroke.
“What essentially happened is I had a part of my brain that died,” she revealed.
The health scare then caused Sandra to take a two-month break from all filming as she recovered, with it becoming the franchise's first known production hiatus since its original series premiered eight years ago.
The presenter said that she had to undergo physical therapy for "very basic things," adding: “I don’t like that I don’t have total control of my left hand or the grip wasn’t as strong.”
Lee said that "it's very scary" if she doesn't feel her best, revealing that filming for her show resumed in January.
However, there is the worry of there being more complicated surgeries later down the road, as the TV host admitted that "there's a lot of PTSD" associated with the situation as it happened while she was filming.
Lee showed her gratitude for support from staff, as she was able to manage while recovering from her stroke.
Her goal is to remove the stigma around strokes, which she also mentioned isn't uncommon in Asian cultures.
She explained: “In Asian cultures in particular they don’t tell people they’ve had a stroke because it can be seen as a sign of weakness,
“I want to get the word out that if you have symptoms like I had, make sure you see your doctor. Take care of yourself.”
