La La Anthony is speaking out about her health with SELF Magazine. During the interview, the busy mom and actress shared intimate details about undergoing emergency heart surgery in June.

While chatting with the publication in August, Anthony revealed that the day after her enjoying a Memorial Day barbecue with family, she began feeling lightheaded. “I never felt anything like that before,” she explained as she documented symptoms like her heart racing, sweating, and looking pale.

She was later transported to a hospital via ambulance after her 14-year-old son Kiyan Anthony voiced concern that she didn’t look like herself. At the hospital, she was sent into an emergency heart procedure, which lasted two hours.

"There were a lot of scary moments,” she recalls about the health scare caused by an abnormal heartbeat. “They would wake me up during the procedure and say, ‘We’re going to speed your heart up now…. Just take deep breaths. Those doctors were just so incredible [...] But it was a terrifying experience.”

She remained in the hospital for four days to recover.

This was not the first time Anthony received alarming news about her heart. Back in 2019, she was diagnosed with premature ventricular contractions (PVCs)—abnormal heartbeats that can lead to serious health issues.

“I felt my heart racing all the time, but because it’s all I ever really knew, I didn’t even know that it was necessarily something wrong,” the 39-year-old explained. “I just thought, ‘Oh, you just feel your heart racing sometimes because you’re working too much, you haven’t slept, you’re stressed.'”

She added, “You know, we, especially Black people, like to self-diagnose. We got all the answers.”

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After seeing a doctor, who conducted an electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG), Anthony learned she was having about 25% more heartbeats over the course of the day than the average person.

“They were very, very concerned,” she shares. “Within a 24-hour period, they said, my heart was beating 30,000 extra beats more than the average person. It was going fast constantly.… Your heart is a muscle. If a muscle is working so hard all the time, eventually the muscle will get weak and cause heart attack, stroke, death, whatever it is.”

Although she was prescribed medication that would attempt to restore a normal heart rhythm, Anthony admits that the side effects caused her to discontinue use. “It really makes you so tired and out of it,” she explained. “I’m on set. I’m reading scripts. I’m filming. There’s no way I could just be that tired. I was literally head-bobbing mid-conversation.”

Anthony shared that if the emergency visit to the hospital didn’t happen this summer, she more than likely wouldn’t have underwent the procedure. “Had it not happened [as an emergency], I probably would have still just been continuing to put it off, put it off, put it off.”

Thankfully, the results of her latest EKGs show signs of better health. She shared, “Just that quick. Everything kind of evened itself out and leveled out.”

Anthony says this experience has made her prioritize self-care. “This made me reprioritize myself because it’s always about everyone else and work and this and that,” she reveals. “And it’s like, if I’m not good, I’m not gonna be good for anyone.”

A powerful statement. We're happy to hear that all is well La La!