Ray J is opening up about some recent health issues that landed him in the hospital. In an Instagram video on Sunday (Jan. 25), the 45-year-old “Sexy Can I” singer and reality TV star thanked fans for praying for him during a recent hospitalization, revealing “my heart’s only beating like 25%,” while adding, “but as long as I stay focused and stay on the right path, everything will be all right.”
The R&B singer born William Ray Norwood Jr., who has become a staple of reality TV over the past decade on shows including multiple seasons of the Love & Hip-Hop franchise, as well as Celebrity Big Brother and the 2017 series My Kitchen Rules with his sister singer Brandy, did not elaborate on what ailment landed him in the hospital or his diagnosis.
At press time the singer’s manager, mother Sonya Norwood, had not responded to Billboard‘s request for additional information on his condition.
He did, however, give updates on his streaming Tronix network, which he said will be a “full dating show network for the next six months,” with the singer teasing the Love Cabin reality show reunion — as well as Love Cabin 2 — in a different Instagram Story on Tuesday (Jan. 27), saying they plan to roll out 25 dating shows in the first half of the year.
Amid the plugs and interjections from the half dozen people around a kitchen island chiming in, Ray J thanked his sister Brandy and his parents for supporting him, writing in the comments, “Just almost died!!! I’m alive because of your prayers and support,” while adding in the video, “my health is not OK.”
In a previous live video, Ray J said that his doctors told him that “2027 is a wrap for me,” as a voice off-screen implored him to “not say that,” lamenting that he “shouldn’t have gone this hard” and thanking Brandy for paying his bills “for the rest of the year.”
He also suggested that excessive drinking and drugs had “f–ked my heart up on the right side… it’s like black, it’s like done,” telling fans that he’s going to Haiti in a few weeks in search of a cure. “I f–ked up… I thought I was a big n–ga, so I’m like, ‘I can handle all the alcohol, I can handle all the Adderall,’ I could handle all the drugs I could handle everything, but I couldn’t, my s–t f–ked up,” claiming he was drinking 4-5 bottles of alcohol a day and taking 10 Adderall.
TMZ reported on Jan. 7 that Ray J was admitted to a Las Vegas hospital for severe pneumonia and heart pain, the second time he’d contracted pneumonia in four years following a bout of it in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The singer was arrested in November after allegedly pointing a gun at his ex-wife, Princess Love, during a livestreamed argument on Thanksgiving. He was taken into custody by Los Angeles police on Nov. 27 and charged with making a criminal threat.