Olivia Rodrigo talks about being 60% deaf in her left ear
On a UK radio show this week, the “drop dead” singer dove further into her hard-of-hearing diagnosis, which she first revealed in 2023.
Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Leading up to its release, Olivia Rodrigo went on KISS FM UK’s radio show to discuss the details of her third album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. But it wasn’t all about the music. Joking about Rodrigo’s song “what’s wrong with me,” a sweet duet with The Cure’s Robert Smith, KISS FM co-host Tyler West asked the pop singer, “What is actually wrong with you?” the 23-year-old mega star said back to him and Chloe Burrows, “There’s quite a lot that’s wrong with me. I’m actually, like, 60% deaf in my left ear. So, if you were to sit on this side of me [gestures to her left side] and try to tell me a secret, I couldn’t make out what you were saying.” If you plan on telling Rodrigo any secrets, she says, “go right ear.”
She learned about her deafness in kindergarten after taking a hearing test and being told she was “a little hard of hearing,” as she recalled to the Hollywood Reporter in 2023. But in a casual flex, she continued, “One of my friends is this great photographer, Petra Collins, and she has really bad vision, and so we always joke that I make music because I have bad hearing, and she takes photos because she has bad vision.”
Yesterday, Rodrigo released you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love to critical acclaim.
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