A Bachelor alum shared a heartbreaking update after being diagnosed with a rare brain disease. They opened up about mourning their ‘unlived life’ amid health decline. Keep reading for all the details on the sad situation.
Bachelor Alum Diagnosed With Rare Brain Disease Diagnosis
Reality TV stars seem glamorous on television, but once the cameras shut off, the glitz wears off, and real life sets in. One Bachelor contestant who made waves during their season was diagnosed with a rare brain disease.
The popularity of The Bachelor led to other countries outside the U.S. creating their own versions. Megan Marx was a contestant on Season 4 of The Bachelor Australia. She made headlines in 2016 after rejecting a rose from the season’s lead, Richie Strahan. Furthermore, she went on to date her fellow contestant, Tiffany Scanlon. Megan Marx joined Bachelor in Paradise Australia after they split. The reality star also competed on The Challenge Australia.
She was diagnosed with the rare brain disease Spinocerebellar ataxia in 2023. The disease causes a degeneration of the cerebellum and spinal cord, affecting vision, speech, and mobility.
Megan Marx Mourns ‘Unlived Life’
The Bachelor alum opened up about living with the brain disease in an essay for Mamamia. “There is a kind of grief that rarely earns a name. It is not the grief of death, nor even the grief that follows a diagnosis. It is the grief of the life we imagined we might live, and the slow recognition that it will not arrive,” she wrote. The diagnosis “explained years of instability, fatigue and inconsistency that had been misread by others and by myself as personal failure.”
Moreover, Megan Marx revealed in the essay that money problems prevent her from seeking treatment that could help keep the disease at bay. There is no cure. “Periods of relative wellness are frequently followed by collapse, making sustained employment difficult and financial security fragile,” she wrote.
In addition to mourning the life she could have lived, she candidly shared other losses. “Although I am fertile, I have never been in a relationship stable enough for children, and now, with a degenerative brain disease diagnosis, I do not believe it is tenable for me to do it on my own,” Megan Marx wrote about her decision not to have kids. She was an egg donor instead.
“Grieving an unlived life is not a refusal of reality. It is an act of honesty. Something was lost,” the Bachelor alum told readers.
Have you watched the show before? Finally, do you know anyone who has Spinocerebellar ataxia? Let us know in the comments, and lastly, episodes of The Bachelor Australia are on YouTube.
Jennifer Havener grew up in a small town in Upstate New York. She earned her B.A in Writing & Literature from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She always knew watching reality TV shows and soap operas, particularly ‘Days of Our Lives’, would come in handy someday. When she’s not writing, she’s playing with her dogs, Lola and Ruger
