People pinpoint ‘exact place' celebs may have caught disease that’s currently on the rise among A-listers

People think they’ve worked out the exact reason why so many celebrities are being struck down with the same bacterial disease - and it’s all to do with a location they visit.

Over the years, a number of famous faces have gone public with their diagnosis, including the likes of Justin Bieber, Shania Twain, Avril Lavigne and Ben Stiller.

According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, estimates suggest that roughly 476,000 people are diagnosed with the illness each year in the US alone.

The most recent A-lister to join the group is Justin Timberlake, who shared an emotional statement to social media on Thursday (31 July), revealing he’s been struggling with the ‘relentlessly debilitating’ disease.

He wrote on Instagram: “When I first got the diagnosis I was shocked for sure.

"But, at least I could understand why I would be onstage and in a massive amount of nerve pain or just feeling crazy fatigue or sickness.”

Justin Timberlake is the last celebrity to be diagnosed with the illness (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

The illness we're talking about is Lyme disease - a bacterial infection which spreads to humans through infected ticks.

As more and more A-listers are opening up on being diagnosed and the awful symptoms and health woes they've faced along with it, people are beginning to theorise why it seems to be so popular among celebrities.

Taking to Reddit, one baffled user questioned: "Why do so many celebrities claim to have Lyme disease? Isn’t that really rare?”

To which someone else confidently responded: “It’s from the Hamptons. All celebrities with it have been there. I’m pretty sure it’s close to where he got his DUI."

For context, people are most likely to encounter ticks when doing activities in the countryside, particularly in woodlands and grasslands where wild animals and livestock are also abundant.

On top of this, ticks are more active during the summer months, as per the UK Government website.

And according to Stony Brook Medicine, it's true that America's Long Island is a hotspot for ticks, Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.

Lords Lane, a Hamptons news website, reports that the Regional Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center at the Stony Brook Southampton Hospital said their helpline has received over 7,000 calls since 2014, with 843 in 2024 alone.

People have made the connection between Lyme disease and the Hamptons (Grant Faint/Getty Images)

Rebecca Young, RN, BSN, Patient Navigator at the Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center, told the publication: “We’re seeing a dramatic increase in Lyme cases across Long Island, but the concentration in the Hamptons is particularly concerning.

"The combination of our woodland landscape, large deer populations, and increasingly mild winters has created ideal conditions for tick proliferation.”

As we know, the Hamptons is a primetime summer destination for the rich and famous, who flock there every year to enjoy the beautiful beaches.

A lot of celebrities even own properties out there, meaning they spend a lot of their time on the eastern end of Long Island, New York.

On the Reddit thread, someone else agreed: "They all vacationed in the Hamptons, which is a hot bed for ticks with Lyme disease.”

And another user replied: "Fascinating. Good analysis. I live in CT and there was a surge here in the northeast between 2014-2018.”

While someone else pointed out: "This. I’ve been telling people this over and over. They spend a lot of time in the Hamptons, especially JT, which is known for Lyme disease ticks.

"If you look at Lyme disease hotspots across the U.S. the Hamptons is filled in like a damn coloring book.”

"Rich people ironically get it because a lot of nice places have high rates of Lyme," penned another.