LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — Justin Bieber announced Friday that he’s canceling the rest of his world tour after being diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome.
In a video posted to Instagram, the 28-year-old singer said he has full facial paralysis on the right side of his face.
“As you can see, this eye is not blinking. I can’t smile on this side of my face. This nostril will not move,” he explained.
Ramsay Hunt syndrome occurs when a shingles outbreak affects the facial nerve near one of your ears, according to Mayo Clinic. It can cause painful shingles rash, facial paralysis and hearing loss in the affected ear.
“So for those who are frustrated by my cancellations of the next shows, I’m just physically, obviously, not capable of doing them,” he said. “This is pretty serious, as you can see. I wish this wasn’t the case. But obviously my body’s telling me I got to slow down.”
Bieber said he’s doing facial exercises to help his face “get back to normal,” but he doesn’t know how long it will take.
“I’ll be using this time to just rest and relax and get back to 100% so that I can do what I was born to do,” the singer said. “It’s gonna be OK. And I have hope and I trust God.”
Bieber canceled shows in Washington D.C. and Toronto earlier this week, and was set to perform in New York next week and in Los Angeles in July.
Just a few months ago, in March, his wife Hailey Bieber was hospitalized due to a small blood clot in her brain. The 25-year-old model said she had suffered a mini-stroke caused by a small hole in her heart that allowed a clot travel to her brain.