The Voice star LeAnn Rimes shares painful health condition she was diagnosed with at age two

The country star revealed she had been forced to hide most of her body as a youngster

The Voice star LeAnn Rimes has been open about her struggles with a painful health condition she was diagnosed with aged just two years old. The country singer and ITV mentor revealed she had spent decades trying to hide the red, scaly patches that at times covered much of her body.

In 2020, to mark World Psoriasis Day, she shared head-to-toe photos of herself during a full-on flare of the condition. Speaking on the podcast PsO in the Know with Cyndi Lauper, who also suffers with Psoriasis, LeAnn opened up about the painful treatments she had been through to fight the skin condition.

She revealed it had badly affected her mental health, and spoke of times she had been 'bleeding' under her clothes while on stage. She said: "It is still an emotional journey for me. I mean, I was diagnosed when I was 2 years old. And you know, I have been suffering with this my whole life off and on.

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"I’ve had clearer moments in my life than others. But it’s something that I have hidden for a long time. I’ve started talking about it over the past decade, which has been incredibly healing for me."

She added: "During the pandemic, with so many stressors, I actually had a severe breakout, and I decided to share photos of myself. That was another incredibly healing step for me, because I knew there was a little girl inside of me that just so desperately wanted to be seen fully and be loved — all of her, not just, you know, what society would deem the typical pretty parts.

"So it was incredibly healing to do that, and I had so many people from all over the world reach out and start to share their journey. And I was overwhelmed. I did not expect that at all.

"I still get really emotional thinking about it, because it was a very vulnerable piece for me. But to have other people all over the world be as vulnerable and share pictures of themselves, even — you know, it’s just such a beautiful, beautiful thing."

She continued: "I’ve talked about mental health a lot, too, because I’ve struggled off and on with depression and anxiety, and I think psoriasis was a huge part of that piece, as far as my mental health and feeling very isolated, feeling like not all of me was welcome to the party of life.

"Having to hide my skin and my body, ever since I was a little girl, I mean, that really does — some of it consciously, but a lot of it unconsciously — put a damper on life. I went through major, different treatments where it was very confining and painful.

"I’ve been on stage with bleeding underneath my clothing. It does a lot to your mental health. I think those photos, for me, were such a huge reveal of this piece that I had been kind of shoving down for 37 years. It definitely was a struggle. And I know I’m not alone in that. I know a lot of people feel that way."