Bijou Phillips has issued a public plea for help as she battles kidney disease.
“I need help finding a kidney,” the Almost Famous actress wrote in post shared to her shared to her Instagram on Wednesday.
Over a series of photos of Phillips with her 11-year-old daughter, Fianna, she pled, “I’m asking as a friend, a sister, an aunt, and, most importantly, a single mother to an incredible and brave daughter. I am in need of a kidney.”
On the last slide of her three-part post, titled, “My story,” Phillips, 45, explained how she was “born with underdeveloped kidneys and spent the first three months of life in the NICU on dialysis: “In 2017, I received the incredible gift of a kidney from a dear friend. That transplant gave me 8 precious years to be a mother to my daughter – but I have had many complications since.”
Phillips has struggled with a condition called BK virus, which the UW School of Medicine and Public Health defines as a common virus that most individuals with regularly functioning immune systems fight off without adverse effects. But kidney transplant recipients are especially susceptible to the virus being activated, due to anti-rejection medication given to organ recipients. Symptoms of the virus can include fever, seizures, and muscle fatigue.
“I am currently under care of Dr Anjay Rastogi at UCLA and back on dialysis,” Phillips wrote. “Please help me find a living donor so that I can have more time with my daughter, family, and friends. Time is of the essence.”
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Phillips’ representative for comment.
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Phillips opened up about her initial need for a transplant in 2017.
“In an effort to heal her body she has led a stress-free life with a vegan diet, which eventually wasn’t enough and she’s been privately having dialysis,” a rep for Phillips told PEOPLE at the time. “She recently found out one of her friends is a match and is optimistic that she will have a transplant soon.”
That transplant did come soon — just two months later. Danny Masterson, whom Phillips filed for divorce from in September 2023 amid his rape conviction that May, shared a picture of the former couple holding hands in hospital beds after the surgery.
“My lady has been slowing dying for the past 7 years of an incurable kidney disease. She was given the gift of an encore by a tall angel. Our daughter will have a mother. We do not take lightly how incredibly fortunate we are. 100% successful transplant,” he wrote.
Lawrence Lucier/FilmMagic
The daughter of Mamas & The Papas singer-songwriter John Phillips and South African singer Geneviève Waïte, Phillips gained notoriety as a New York City “it girl,” gracing the cover of Interview Magazine in 1994, when she was only 13. She later gained recognition for her performances in films like Almost Famous and Bully.
Phillips’ famous friends flooded the comment section of her Wednesday post, with Paris Hilton writing “Love you so much sis. Sending you so much love, light, and strength,” and her sister Nicky adding, “Love you Bij!”