Oscars 2022

Liza Minnelli health problems: why is actress in a wheelchair - and what is her illness viral encephalitis?

The Cabaret star and Lady Gaga took to the stage to announce the winner of the Best Picture award at the 2022 Academy Awards

By Rhona Shennan

Tuesday, 29th March 2022, 1:39 pm


The Academy Awards 2022 turned out to be a highly eventful night for reasons that no-one could have predicted - amidst actor Troy Kostur making history as the first deaf male actor to win an Oscar, the evening was overshadowed by Will Smith taking to the stage to slap Chris Rock over a “G.I. Jane 2” joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

While the Smith and Rock altercation is the moment that everyone has been talking about, fans and viewers have urged that everyone’s attention should be redirected to presenting duo Liza Minnelli and Lady Gaga.

Minnelli and Lady Gaga appeared together to present the Best Picture award, and it was their interaction that fans have called “heartwarming” - although some have been left wondering why Minnelli was in a wheelchair during the awards ceremony.

This is everything you need to know.

Why was Liza Minnelli in a wheelchair?

Throughout her life, Minnelli has had to deal with a number of difficulties with her health, all of which have likely contributed to her requiring the use of a wheelchair to get around.

In 2006, Minnelli said: “I’ve got two false hips, a wired-up knee, scoliosis, which I’ve always had, and three crushed disks.”

In October 2000, when she was 54, Minnelli was hospitalised with a case of viral encephalitis which, the NHS, says is “an uncommon but serious condition in which the brain becomes inflamed (swollen)”.

She had been admitted to Cleveland Clinic in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after she appeared to have had a stroke. Minnelli was eventually discharged a week later, but was readmitted once again after three days.

At the time, a clinic official said: “We found her semi-conscious on the floor, disorientated and suffering from what we believe was a possible stroke.”

Minnelli was diagnosed with viral encephalitis when she returned to the hospital for a second time.

The NHS says that the signs of encephalitis can begin with flu-like symptoms, like a high temperature and a headache, but in the coming hours, days or weeks, more serious symptoms can develop, including:

Confusion or disorientation

Seizures or fits

Changes in personality and behaviour

Difficulty speaking

Weakness or loss of movement in some parts of the body

Loss of consciousness

In an interview with NBC’s Dateline in 2004, Minnelli said: “I couldn’t walk and I couldn’t talk, and they told me I wouldn’t… ever again.

“After I was told that, everybody left the room and I turned my face to the wall and started to go, “A, B, C”.

“You know, that’s what it felt like because I had Carnegie Hall to rehearse. I want to live. I have always wanted to live.”

It was thought that Minnelli would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair following the illness, but she was able to recover enough to go on to star in her solo show Liza’s Back in New York and London in 2002, and guest starred in the sitcom Arrested Development between 2003 and 2013.