Amy Schumer was the last person who saw fame coming, and it wasn't always an easy road.
What challenges did she face before she became famous?
Keep watching to find out.
Amy Schumer's childhood was upended after a tragic diagnosis turned her family's life
upside down.
Her father, Gordon Schumer, was found to have multiple sclerosis when she was 9 years old,
and the family went bankrupt, according to The New York Times.
On top of this, her father's diagnosis led to a sudden desire in him to disclose the
secrets of his life.
Schumer said,
"I think because he has MS, he wanted to confess everything in case he died.
I got to be that lucky gal."
But Schumer also shared that her father's MS informed her comedy in a rich way, telling
NPR's David Greene,
"I mean, it's the most painful thing in the world to just watch this person that you love
ultimately just digress and kind of decompose.
And it's too heavy, and you have to find a way to laugh at it.
I will on stage go to a very dark place and make light of things that are painful.
And it makes me feel better to hear about other people's struggles, so I like to share
mine."
They had to forfeit their family farm when Schumer was a kid, but for Christmas in 2016,
she bought it back as a present for her dad.
Amy Schumer opened up about her first sexual experience with Katie Couric on her podcast
Next Question and said that she was raped.
Schumer also told Marie Claire,
"My first sexual experience was not a good one.
I didn't think about it until I started reading my journal again.
When it happened, I wrote about it almost like a throwaway."
Schumer also spoke about the experience of coercion that she often lived through as a
young woman where she felt unable to say no to a man's sexual advances.
"For me I lost my virginity while I was asleep."
So a major part of Schumer's growth into adulthood was owning her right to set boundaries and
see herself as a survivor rather than a victim.
Schumer opened up about this mentality in her book, The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo,
after the sexual assault, where she had to shed the idea that it was her fault.
"I didn't consent.
We hadn't discussed it."
She wrote,
"Isn't it sad that when a girl says she was sexually assaulted, our first instinct is
to think she's probably lying?"
"I felt really angry at him, and it's like, a rage that has stayed with me.
I don't think you lose that."
That wasn't the only harrowing experience Schumer had as a young woman.
In high school, Schumer almost died while surfing when she punctured her leg with her
surfboard fin.
She told Vanity Fair that she needed 41 stitches, adding,
"I skegged myself.
My whole fin went into my leg, and I had to yank it out.
I was by myself."
Schumer explained that the beach was relatively abandoned, since it was late in the season,
but she found a man who helped her after she swam to shore, saying,
"I was like, 'I need you to hold my leg.'
I was delegating.
And he held my leg closed with his bare hands — just fat and blood coming out.
I wish I knew who that guy was, because he saved my life, for sure."
While this mysterious stranger saved her, sharks were her top fear while she was swimming
in, and at one point, she felt certain that she was going to die.
She explained,
"But my thoughts while I was coming out — I remember them.
I thought, 'Well, I'm going to die.
I can't believe I'm going to die like this.'"
Amy Schumer spent her childhood in Long Island and is a New York City gal at heart, but she
spent some time in California, too.
Unfortunately, the reason for her trip to the opposite coast was a sad one.
She told Brick Underground in 2011,
"I also lived in Santa Barbara for a period of time because I followed an abusive boyfriend
out there.
I mistakenly thought that it meant he really liked me."
In her book, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Schumer went into further detail,
discussing one boyfriend's envy and anger after she had danced with someone else.
She wrote,
"He ran to the kitchen and broke a mug over his head, and then started banging his head
on a light fixture attached to the ceiling.
It wouldn't break.
I was screaming for him to stop, when he grabbed a huge butcher knife from a drawer.
And that's when I was sure he was going to kill me."
On Paris Hilton's podcast This is Paris, Schumer spoke about such horror in hindsight, saying,
"Those patterns can be broken, which is really cool.
Like, anybody can wind up in an abusive relationship."
Schumer's message was one of hope.
She changed the course of this path for herself and speaks about it openly now.
Tragedy hit in July 2015, and although Amy was not directly involved, it deeply affected
her.
A shooter wounded nine individuals, killed two women, and then killed himself at a Louisiana
theater playing Amy Schumer's Trainwreck.
"Hours ago, a man stood up in a crowded movie theater and opened fire."
Schumer told Vanity Fair that hearing about the tragedy was utterly devastating to her.
She said that the news came from her publicist, adding,
"And then I put on the news.
I was by myself in a hotel, and I was just like, I wish I never wrote that movie.
I just felt helpless and stupid."
Schumer admitted to feeling responsible for the tragedy, even though those close to her
stressed the point that she had done nothing wrong.
Schumer told Katie Couric on her podcast Next Question that the experience made her invested
in gun activism.
Talking about the victims, she said,
"I think about them all the time.
I kind of keep them with me and any accomplishments or anything, I just always mention them.
I dedicate every special to them now.
Just to keep them alive in myself and in the ether."
"These shootings have gotta stop.
I don't know how else to say it."
Amy Schumer's experiences online haven't always been positive.
The comedian has been the continuous target of internet trolls who want to go after her
for her looks.
Schumer has been open about overcoming body shaming, and her 2018 film I Feel Pretty targeted
this directly.
"I'm beautiful!"
Schumer spoke to Vice Life about the importance of this project, saying,
"All social media is usually attacking me and trolling how I look."
She explained that her message was that people should feel good about themselves and stop
spending energy on comparison and self-deprecation.
"What if we didn't care about how we looked?"
Amy Schumer opened up about a health crisis on Instagram in September 2020, posting a
throwback photo of herself as a child going fishing and writing,
"Anyone get LYME this summer?
I got it and I'm on doxycycline.
"I have maybe had it for years."
She went on to ask for help, saying,
"Any advice?
Can you have a glass of wine or 2 on it?
I know to stay out of the sun.
I'm also taking these herbs from cape cod called lyme-2."
But Schumer was overall positive in her post, writing,
"I also want to say that I feel good and am excited to get rid of it."
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection caused by infected ticks' bites, according to the
Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Symptoms, including headaches and fatigue, can be eliminated through antibiotics if caught
early, but the disease can have severe repercussions and lead to years of debilitating health problems
if left untreated, spreading to the joints, the heart, and the nervous system.
Several other celebrities have opened up about the harrowing experience of going through
Lyme disease.
Kelly Osbourne spoke about her diagnosis and how challenging it was to receive treatment,
considering it's often called an invisible illness.
Justin Bieber has also been candid about the intense struggle he's had with Lyme, as has
Yolanda Hadid about herself and two of her children: Bella and Anwar Hadid.
Yolanda told People,
"It's very real.
And [a] lot of people are suffering."
For Amy Schumer, conceiving her son and living through her pregnancy was a huge challenge.
In an effort to have a second child, Schumer and her husband, Chris Fischer, used in vitro
fertilization and, true to her transparent, candid nature, Schumer shared the experience
with fans on Instagram.
In January 2020, she shared photos of her bruised abdomen and said:
"I'm a week into IVF and feeling really run down and emotional.
We are freezing my eggs and figuring out what to do to give Gene a sibling."
However, Schumer and her husband eventually decided to stop IVF.
She wrote,
"I decided that I can't be pregnant ever again.
We thought about a surrogate, but I think we're gonna hold off for right now."
Schumer's pregnancy with her son was extremely challenging, too, something she chronicled
in the HBO series Expecting Amy, where she continued touring throughout her pregnancy.
"My husband didn't pull out, so I'm pregnant!"
She experienced hyperemesis gravidarum, a condition that includes acute and long-lasting
forms of morning sickness.
Lyme Disease wasn't the only illness to catch Amy Schumer off guard.
Schumer also suffered from endometriosis, a condition where uterine tissue grows outside
of the uterus, causing acute pain and in some cases, fertility issues.
In September 2021, Schumer had surgery where both her uterus and her appendix had to be
removed.
In a video shared to Instagram, Schumer said,
"The doctor found 30 spots of endometriosis and [...] he removed my appendix because the
endometriosis had attacked it."
Throughout her recovery, Schumer kept fans updated and also called out the medical industry
for neglecting women in its research.
In a later post, Schumer noted that much of the medical resources are allocated to issues
that affect men, like erectile dysfunction.
She wrote,
"THERE IS BARELY ANY RESEARCH ON ENDOMETRIOSIS WHICH OVER 10 percent of women have."
In January 2022, Schumer gave another health update on Instagram, writing,
"I feel good.
Finally.
[...] Talk to me after your uterus doesn't contract for 2.5 years and you turn 40."
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National
Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.