In a poignant moment during Wednesday’s court proceedings, Lindsay Clancy was visibly overcome with emotion as she listened to testimony from a medical examiner regarding the autopsy of her young daughter.

Dr. Barbara Olson, the medical examiner, had just taken the witness stand to detail the findings of Cora Clancy’s autopsy when Lindsay Clancy, the grieving mother, could no longer hold back her tears and began to sob uncontrollably.

In the midst of her breakdown, Clancy exclaimed, “I can’t do this.”

Currently, Lindsay Clancy is facing serious charges, including first-degree murder, after being accused in the tragic deaths of her three children: 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan.

Clancy, 32, took the lives of her three children before attempting suicide on Jan. 24, 2023.

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Clancy does not dispute that she killed her children. Instead, her defense contends she was suffering from severe postpartum depression brought on by being overmedicated on prescriptions.

According to evidence and testimony presented in court, five doctors prescribed Clancy with the following medication before she killed her three kids:

• Zoloft
• Valium
• Trazodone
• Prozac
• Lamictal
• Seroquel
• Remeron
• Klonopin
• Buspirone
• Ativan
• Amitriptyline
• Ambien

Following Clancy’s breakdown, Judge William Sullivan ordered a recess and excused the jury from the courtroom.

Two women could be seen appearing to console Clancy while she was crying inside the courtroom.

Sullivan was also forced to call a break on Wednesday after Clancy began crying while a different medical examiner, Renee Stonebridge, gave testimony about her examination of some body parts of Clancy’s three kids.

Just over a day has passed since the iconic Los Angeles Lakers were acquired by former Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger and entrepreneur Josh Kushner. However, a new development could delay the completion of the sale.

According to ESPN’s basketball insider Brian Windhorst, Josh Kushner must divest his minority stake in the Miami Heat to officially take ownership of the Lakers. This requirement could significantly slow down the transaction process.

“The Heat don’t often engage in selling shares,” Windhorst shared on Thursday during an episode of The Hoop Collective podcast.

“Owning this team is a tightly held privilege, which might mean the divestment could take some time,” he added.

In late 2024, Kushner acquired a 5% interest in the Miami Heat following the sale of his minority ownership in the Memphis Grizzlies, which he had held since 2019.

As Windhorst mentioned, the Heat don’t sell pieces of the team too often, and it remains undisclosed who he bought his stake in the team from. But it is believed not to be majority owner Micky Arison, who has controlled the franchise since 1995.

Iger and Kushner’s purchase of the Lakers on Wednesday morning came at a record-breaking $12.5 billion sale from Mark Walter, who also owns the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Walter previously owned the team for 14 months, after purchasing a majority of the shares from Jeanie Buss, who will remain the team’s governor for five years following the sale.

It took four months for Walter’s purchase of the Lakers to become official, when he was introduced as team’s new owner last October.

With this potential hiccup slowing down the sale, we may be looking well into the winter before an official announcement is concluded.

A recently discovered image from NASA presents an intriguing sight on Mars—a peculiar object that some observers liken to a jellyfish or a mechanical apparatus in the distant landscape.

Captured by the Curiosity rover, which has spent 14 years exploring the possibilities of microbial life on the Red Planet, the snapshot was taken on August 20, 2023, at approximately 6:27 PM ET.

The image beautifully showcases Mars’ dusty terrain, complete with rugged hills and imposing mountains.

Yet, a closer look at the panorama reveals something unexpected—a tiny form in the left corner, distinguished by a prominent black body balanced on slender legs.

Speculation surged about this potential Martian anomaly, as images snapped shortly before showed no trace of the curious silhouette, suggesting it might have moved swiftly across the Martian surface.

Moreover, the photo with the object was the last image posted on NASA’s website for that day. The next picture from Curiosity was taken nearly two hours later with the camera pointed in a different direction.

In September 2025, NASA declared it had found the clearest signs of ancient microbial life on Mars in a sample collected by the Perseverance rover. 

However, the space agency and White House have maintained that no signs of intelligent life have ever been found.

There were no other photos from August 20, 2023 posted by NASA that revealed if the object kept moving, approached the rover or if it was simply a glitch of the camera – which space officials refer to as an ‘artifact.’ 

The 2023 image was reposted on Wednesday by social media user Kari Sivertzen, a space enthusiast who regularly shares public NASA images that contain strange anomalies that cannot be easily explained. 

Sivertzen said on X: ‘Sometimes I spot things that catch my eye, and I share them here. I believe there is life on other planets, and since NASA has found potential traces of life on Mars, it’s the perfect place to look.’

‘One of the best Mars UFO photographs I’ve seen!’ one person replied.

Independent Mars researcher Jean Ward said on X: ‘Jellyfish-shaped UFO/UAP Spotted on Mars. This one seems to be interacting with the surface. 

‘It also reminds me of a tripod-like object.’

Some have compared the distant object to the giant alien walkers seen in the science fiction movie ‘War of the Worlds.’

However, many skeptics argued that the small black figure standing in the distance was nothing more than corrupted pixels in Curiosity’s photo.

Another doubter claimed the object was actually a human-made craft. 

Specifically, they claimed it was the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which made the first powered and remotely controlled flight on another planet in 2021.

However, this claim was quickly debunked as Ingenuity is more than 2,000 miles away in a completely different crater on Mars.

Curiosity rover has been exploring Gale Crater since 2012. The area is a huge impact crater roughly the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, with a towering mountain rising from its center.

Scientists believe this location will provide more evidence that life once existed on Mars thousands, and possibly millions, of years ago.

Like the Perseverance rover, it is using onboard instruments to study rock layers, clay deposits and climate history to look for microbial traces of life.

‘Looks like a tower or some type of structure, a dome on top… a relic from Mars distant past civilization,’ one person describing the object from 2023 claimed.

‘Looks like a scarecrow to me! Really, what is it? Doesn’t look like a dust devil!’ another viewer said.

As Perseverance and Curiosity send back more and more images from the Martian surface, eagle-eyed viewers have been finding a growing number of strange objects which look like doorways, ancient statues and even people walking on the Red Planet.

Such discoveries frequently capture public attention because the human brain naturally attempts to recognize familiar shapes in ambiguous images, a phenomenon known as pareidolia.

It is the same psychological effect that can cause people to see faces in clouds, animals in rock formations or human-made structures across the barren Martian landscape.

Mars has produced several famous examples, most notably the so-called ‘Face on Mars,’ which was photographed by NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter in 1976.

Higher-resolution images later revealed that the apparent face was an ordinary eroded hill whose human-like appearance resulted from shadows and the relatively poor quality of the original photograph.

NASA and the Trump Administration are now planning for the first manned mission to Mars by the end of the decade.

Luigi Mangione, who stands accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is reportedly planning to plead guilty to federal charges at an unexpected pretrial meeting on Friday. The decision could potentially disrupt the proceedings of his forthcoming state-level murder trial, which is set to commence in New York City in just a few weeks.

Despite multiple inquiries from News Media, both state and federal prosecutors, as well as Mangione’s defense team, have remained tight-lipped and have yet to offer any official comments on the matter.

However, two leading newspapers, New York Post and New York Times, have both disclosed that Mangione, a former Ivy League student aged 28, intends to plead guilty regarding the federal stalking charges.

Mangione faces accusations of trailing CEO Brian Thompson to a Hilton hotel in Manhattan on December 4, 2024. That morning, he allegedly shot Thompson from behind just hours before a business event was set to unfold at the venue. The incident was captured on surveillance footage, which depicts a hooded figure approaching Thompson and discharging a handgun—a weapon authorities claim Mangione still possessed when he was arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania five days later.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all charges in both cases previously. His defense team has had some success already, convincing judges in both cases to dismiss the most serious charges. As a result, he no longer would face capital punishment if convicted in a federal trial, and would not face life without parole if convicted in New York state.

He could still face a maximum sentence of life without parole in federal prison if convicted in that case — but experts say he would probably avoid the stiffest possible sentence even if convicted by a jury.

“Rarely somebody with no background, who’s educated, gets the maximum sentences,” said Donna Rotunno, a Chicago criminal defense attorney and Fox News contributor. “Is he looking at minimum sentences? No. But at the end of the day, he’s benefiting from more serious charges being dismissed.”

He is still likely looking at decades behind bars, and any legal issues arising from a potential plea deal could also delay the start of his state trial, which is supposed to begin with jury selection on Sept. 8, she said.

This is a developing story.

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT

Perez Hilton’s sister has opened up about the traumatic experience of the gossip blogger’s suicide attempt in a heartfelt discussion with Page Six.

“August 4th will always be etched in my memory as one of the most painful days my family and I have ever faced,” Barbara Lavandeira revealed exclusively to Page Six during a phone interview on Wednesday. That night, Hilton live-streamed acts of self-harm on TikTok, which ended with him being rushed to a nearby hospital for urgent medical care.

Barbara elaborated on that difficult afternoon, saying, “Mario was in his bedroom with the door locked and closed, which was unusual for him. He usually kept it open,” referring to Hilton by his given name, Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr.

She explained that when Hilton, who is 48 years old, stopped responding as she checked on him, her concern grew. Barbara, who was in town visiting from California, felt an increasing sense of worry.

“When I knocked, he said he was fine, but I could barely hear him,” she said. “After I knocked a few more times and asked him to open the door, he stopped responding. I tried calling his cell phone in case he couldn’t hear me, but he wouldn’t answer. Something just felt wrong.

“I unlocked his bedroom door and realized he was inside the bathroom. I knocked several more times and told him I was going to come in if he didn’t open the door. He still didn’t answer, so I unlocked it.”

Barbara then recounted the devastating moment she realized something was terribly wrong as she came face-to-face with her brother.

“When I opened the door, my nightmare became a reality,” Barbara bravely shared. “Mario was standing in front of the shower, naked, cut up, covered in blood, with a box cutter in his hand.”

It was a moment she will never be able to erase from her memory.

“What I can say with certainty is that I didn’t recognize my brother when I looked at him. I saw it in his eyes. They didn’t look the same. Then, a split second later, he smiled at me. It felt like I was staring at someone else,” she shared.

In a total panic, Barbara fled the bathroom and quickly led his three children — Mario, 13, Mia, 11, and Mayte, 8 — out of the house.

“I left the room, grabbed the car keys, and yelled for the kids to run to the car. Thankfully, our mom wasn’t home at the time, and I was able to get everyone out quickly,” she said.

Once the children were safely in the car, Barbara dialed 911.

“The first call I made was to the police. Then I messaged my best friend, who lives nearby, while I was on with dispatch, and asked her to please come get the kids and take them away from the scene,” she said.

While “much more happened” in the hours that followed, Barbara, who has an extremely close relationship with her older brother, said she is going to “leave out many of the specific details” because “they’re too painful, graphic, and overwhelming.”

As we know, Hilton left loved ones and fans horrified when he livestreamed acts of self-harm on TikTok live.

Barbara continued to Page Six, “Eventually, I was able to go back into the house while I waited for the ambulance and place towels over Mario to help stop the bleeding. He had already lost a significant amount of blood, yet he was somehow still able to speak, although his voice was very faint.

“The ambulance took him to the hospital, and I stayed behind to speak with the crisis team that arrived.”

Barbara explained why she bravely chose to open up to Page Six about the harrowing details of that horrific day.

“I’ve debated for the past few days whether I should say anything personally,” she said. “Mario has always been an open book. He’s a public personality and someone who has shared so much of his life online.”

She added, “As his younger sister, I’m the opposite. I’m a very private person, and although I’ve worked with him for many years, I’ve always stayed behind the scenes.”

As the “only person who witnessed what happened from the beginning to the end,” Barbara said, she feels she is the only person who can “offer some clarity” since “so much has happened.”

“I’m talking now for everyone who cares about him and has been sending their best wishes, but also because of all the rumors, false reporting, fake exclusives, and made-up quotes going around,” she said. “I can only share what I personally witnessed and experienced, but I want people to hear directly from someone who was actually there.”

Barbara took a moment to shut down the misconceptions about Hilton’s character, sharing that he is not the same person he was more than a decade ago when he launched his controversial website.

“The comments calling this ‘karma’ have been especially painful. I wouldn’t wish what my mother, Mario’s children, or our entire family is experiencing on anyone,” Barbara said.

Barbara understands that “some people don’t like” Hilton, while others “even hate him.”

“Mario has publicly acknowledged the harm he caused earlier in his career,” she said. “In 2010, he went on network television and admitted that the outings, doodles, and other things he did were wrong, and he has apologized repeatedly.”

Barbara pleaded with the public for some respect as her family navigates this difficult situation.

“I’m not asking anyone to forget or excuse any of that. I also understand that some people will always believe he hasn’t done enough, despite his efforts,” she said.

She continued, “I’m simply asking people to recognize that he has changed tremendously over the past 20 years and has genuinely tried to become a better person.

“I don’t believe someone should be reduced forever to the worst things they did in their past, especially when they’ve admitted the harm and genuinely tried to grow.

“Whatever anyone thinks about Mario, his children and our mother are innocent. They shouldn’t be punished or tormented because of how people feel about him.”

Sources previously told Page Six that his close circle is concerned that Hilton’s recent battle with sepsis may have triggered his mental health scare.

In March, the entertainment personality was hospitalized for three weeks after taking flu medication on an empty stomach. Hilton said he “developed an ulcer and then a perforation and then sepsis.”

“My stupidity landed me in the hospital for 21 days. It was the worst and best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he shared in a YouTube video at the time.

Hilton was back in the hospital a month later when a “massive” blood clot prompted the need for emergency surgery.

On top of his sepsis and blood clot, he has also been having trouble adjusting after moving from Las Vegas to Miami in June.

Additionally, we’re told he has been struggling financially to pay his health bills.

Hilton’s mom filed for temporary custody of his three children on Aug. 7 as he continues to receive medical care.

Barbara also told Page Six that she is grateful to Hilton’s loving fans who have supported her brother throughout his career and during this difficult time.

“What I can say on behalf of our family is that we’re deeply grateful for every kind message, prayer, and expression of genuine concern,” she said. “The support has meant more to us than I can properly express.”

For further updates about Perez Hilton from his family, please go to perezhilton.com

If you or someone you know needs help in the US, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.

In a surprising revelation, a 2024 study highlights that taxi and ambulance drivers have among the lowest mortality rates from Alzheimer’s disease compared to nearly every other profession.

This unexpected finding emerged from an extensive examination of death certificates, analyzing nearly 9 million records across the United States. The study, published in the BMJ, sheds light on intriguing occupational health trends.

Experts suggest that the mental agility required for tasks like navigation and map interpretation might play a critical role. The cognitive engagement involved in real-time driving and decision-making could potentially offer protective benefits for the brain.

Focusing on the data from January 2020 to December 2022, researchers noted that out of 443 distinct occupations, taxi and ambulance drivers had the least incidence of Alzheimer’s mortality, a condition impacting 7 million Americans.

Even after adjusting for factors like age, gender, race, ethnicity, and educational background, findings revealed approximately 1 in 100 taxi and ambulance drivers succumbed to Alzheimer’s, contrasting with every 1 in 60 individuals overall.

This pattern did not extend to other driving jobs, however, leading researchers to conclude that the key to reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s was not driving itself but continuous real-time navigation: the constant work of locating yourself in space, tracking a destination and updating a mental map as conditions change. 

Drivers whose jobs relied on fixed or predetermined routes, like bus drivers and aircraft pilots, didn’t seem to experience a similar advantage.

Researchers believe the association between navigation-heavy work and lower Alzheimer’s risk centers on the hippocampus, a part of the brain that governs memory and spatial navigation. 

It’s one of the first brain regions that Alzheimer’s damages: Problems with spatial navigation and orientation are among the earliest signs of the disease, sometimes surfacing before obvious memory loss.

In one landmark 2000 study, neuroscientists compared the brains of licensed London taxi drivers with those of people who did not drive cabs. 

Their findings provided the first evidence via structural imaging that regions of the adult brain can measurably change under sustained navigational demand. 

To earn a license, London cab drivers must memorize more than 25,000 streets within a 6-mile radius of Charing Cross, a challenge known as ‘The Knowledge’ that takes three to four years.

The researchers found that London taxi drivers had measurably more gray matter in the posterior hippocampus, a brain area tied to storing large-scale spatial maps. 

That volume tracked with experience – the longer someone had driven, the larger that part of the brain. 

The change was built through practice, not inherited. While people who are good at navigation might gravitate to this kind of job, the job itself does have an impact on the brain.

Together, these two studies make a coherent case. Work that intensively exercises the hippocampus may reshape it, and that reshaping may protect against one of the most feared diseases of aging.

Cartographers, urban planners and geospatial analysts spend their working days in sustained spatial reasoning. 

A geographic information system (GIS) specialist might use a computer to overlap population data on flood exposure maps to find who is at risk, or read satellite imagery to map land cover after a wildfire. 

Researchers juggle several layers of data, coordinate systems and scales at once.

Does spatial reasoning through a screen engage the hippocampus the way moving through a real city does?

While a taxi driver navigates from inside the scene at street level, GIS researchers picture space from above as a map – what cognitive scientists call allocentric reasoning. 

However, these two perspectives overlap in the brain. The hippocampus also builds maps from outside viewpoints, not just from a navigator’s own position.

Research on cognitive maps points toward the same conclusion as the study on taxi drivers. 

In 2023, researchers ran a machine learning model on more than 22,500 people in a national dataset and were able to predict which zip codes had higher rates of Alzheimer’s with 84 percent accuracy based on how complex the environment was. 

Those living in spatially complex surroundings – the kind that force active map building, such as dense street networks with numerous intersections, diverse points of interest and landmarks, and multiple path options – were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

A follow-up study tied geospatial complexity in one’s environment to greater volume in the brain’s spatial navigation regions. 

The researchers hypothesized that routinely building cognitive maps exercises the very circuitry that Alzheimer’s attacks first. Repeatedly engaging the cognitive systems involved in spatial navigation could help delay symptoms of disease.

However, these two studies focus on where people live, not the work people do. Whether spatial reasoning through a screen exercises the same circuitry as real-life city navigation remains untested.

The implications of whether sustained spatial reasoning protects the brain reach beyond mapmakers and cab drivers. Studies have repeatedly found a link between mentally complex occupations and delayed cognitive decline and lower dementia risk, even after accounting for education.

Research on cognitive reserve – the brain’s capacity to continue functioning despite disease – can help explain why two people with a similar disease burden can show markedly different levels of cognitive impairment. 

If demanding spatial thinking protects the brain, then how societies design schooling, professional training and retirement all become questions of brain health.

Spatial reasoning can be trained, and training opportunities are already widespread. GIS and remote sensing instruction are available through geography, engineering, public health and environmental science programs worldwide.

If sustained engagement with spatial reasoning can help the brain strengthen the circuitry that Alzheimer’s attacks first, its value reaches well beyond the technical skills it builds.

This article is adapted from The Conversation, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to sharing the knowledge of experts. It was written by Hatim Sharif, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The University of Texas at San Antonio. It was edited by Alexa Lardieri, the US health editor at Daily Mail. 

In a heartbreaking incident in Florida, a father who had just escorted his daughter to her first day at elementary school lost his life. The tragedy occurred as he attempted to defuse a violent altercation between a man and a woman, according to police and local reports.

Fifty-six-year-old Daryl Hill, who resided near Apopka, is now mourned by his wife, two adult children, and a younger daughter, merely 10 years old. The incident shook the community Tuesday morning near Wolf Lake Elementary School, as noted by FOX 35 Orlando.

“He had the biggest heart in the entire world,” lamented Damon Hill, Daryl’s son, speaking to the station. “He cherished everyone… His compassion was boundless, and he never judged others.”

The sequence of events began with witnesses observing a dispute between a man and a woman inside a vehicle, which subsequently crashed, escalating the conflict outside, as detailed by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

“Witnessing that altercation, a Good Samaritan attempted to intervene and was shot. That man, 56-year-old Daryl Alexander Hill, later died at the hospital,” the sheriff’s office said.

“Mr. Hill was simply trying to help someone who appeared to be in distress when he was shot by 26-year-old Raul Lionel Vazquez. Vazquez was arrested on a charge of Second-Degree Murder,” it added.

Suzanne Hill, Daryl’s wife, told Spectrum News 13 that her husband was a “friend, family and stranger: he cared for everybody and helped everybody and always stepped in, which I think is ultimately what took his life.”

Police said the shooting happened at Plymouth Sorrento and West Ponkan roads in Apopka, which is down the road from the elementary school.

Before Hill was shot, Vazquez and a woman, Kaidy Honaker, were seen by multiple witnesses fighting inside their white Chevy Silverado pickup truck when it crashed into a black Lexus, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by News Media. The two continued their heated altercation on the sidewalk.

Vazquez, who was seen shirtless and wearing no shoes, got in Honaker’s face and appeared to be yelling and pointing at her, the affidavit said.

Two witnesses said they saw Hill riding a bicycle nearby and told authorities that he got involved in the argument, which led to Vazquez and Hill tackling each other into the bushes, per the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, Honaker joined the fight as well, later saying she did so to pull Hill off Vazquez.

After the fight in the bushes, Hill began running away from Vazquez and Honaker, yelling “help” with his hands in the air, the affidavit said.

Vazquez retrieved what was later determined to be a shotgun from his pickup truck and fired one round, hitting Hill and causing him to fall to the ground, according to the affidavit.

In an interview with investigators, Vazquez offered “many different accounts” of what happened but said that Hill “was fighting him and getting the better of him,” according to the affidavit.

At the time of the shooting, Vazquez was out on bond for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

FOX 35 reported that a judge has since revoked that bond and ordered him held without bond in that case and for the second-degree murder charge.

In a dramatic turn of events, a former Ukrainian submarine commander who had defected to Russia met a violent end on Thursday. According to officials, his demise came at the hands of a Russian woman who, acting on directives from Kyiv, used a bomb concealed within a trash bin to execute the attack.

The woman, aged 32, remains unnamed but is accused of plotting the assassination under the guidance of Ukraine’s intelligence network, targeting Robert Shageev, a significant figure within the Kremlin’s Black Sea Fleet, as per statements from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

Shageev, originally a Ukrainian deserter who sided with Russia post-Crimea annexation in 2014, was caught off guard while strolling in Sevastopol. It was around 10 a.m. when the explosion from a nearby trash bin disrupted the morning calm, as reported by both Ukrainian and Russian media outlets.

The explosion’s intensity was such that it initially alarmed local residents, mistakenly leading them to believe it was another drone attack, akin to those frequently tormenting Russian troops in the region. This detail was highlighted by Russian Telegram channels with ties to security forces.

In a swift response, authorities apprehended the suspect, who, according to Russian claims, has admitted to orchestrating Shageev’s assassination.

“Investigators established that she acted on instructions from Ukrainian special services and showed no remorse,” Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Kremlin-installed governor of Sevastopol, said in a statement.

Shageev was wanted by Ukraine for high treason over his actions as the acting commander of the Ukrainian vessel Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv’s only submarine during the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea.

During the invasion, Shageev hailed that his unit would hold out until the end, only for the commander to give up the submarine and defect to the Russian military.

Shageev has been previously accused of serving in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with his fleet allegedly among those that fired submarine-launched missile attacks during the war.

Ukraine has been previously accused of carrying out assassinations in Russia and abroad against Moscow officials and defectors.

The attack that killed Shageev coincided with a seperate incident in Sevastopol overnight that saw five Russian emergency service workers killed as they tried to dispose of a Ukrainian bomb, Razvozhayev said.

“Our guys were inspecting the area after a Ukrainian attack. An enemy munition detonated,” he added.

Kelly Ripa recently disclosed a surprising personal revelation: an ordinary habit led her to endure ‘painful’ gum surgery.

The TV personality, known for her role as co-host on “Live with Kelly and Mark,” took a hiatus from the show this past July. Her husband and co-host, Mark Consuelos, revealed at that time that Kelly underwent gum graft surgery to address her receding gums.

Ripa has now provided further insight into what necessitated the surgical procedure.

On the latest episode of her podcast, “Let’s Talk Off Camera,” recorded prior to her surgery, Ripa revealed that the condition resulted from an unlikely source—excessive teeth brushing.

“I’m an over-brusher,” she confessed to guest co-host Michelle Buteau. “I brush my teeth too much. It’s a good-bad habit,” she explained.

‘But I’ve caused gum recession down here specifically, and so they have gotta re-gum my gums.’

When Buteau said the procedure ‘sounded painful,’ Ripa admitted: ‘It is. [And I won’t be] allowed to talk for ten days [afterwards].’ 

Ripa also confessed that she was supposed to get the surgery five years ago but had been putting it off.

‘But now, the doctor was like, “Now, you don’t have the luxury of time,”‘ she added.

According to My Cleveland Clinic, gum graft surgery ‘covers exposed teeth roots and adds volume to your gum line, improving overall oral health.’

The site adds that receding gums are often a result of gum disease, but people can also be genetically prone to thinning gums. 

‘You can also develop gum recession if you brush too aggressively,’ My Cleveland Clinic notes.

‘Recovery usually takes one week to two weeks, but it may take longer.’

On July 27, Consuelos gave an update on Ripa’s health while addressing her absence on the show. 

‘She’s doing well. She’s doing great,’ the Fallen Angels thespian said smiling. ‘She’s not allowed to talk.’ 

‘Wow, that’s got to be the hardest thing that she’s ever done,’ Kevin Jonas, who was a guest at the time, responded.

Consuelos continued: ‘She’s such a great conversationalist, but I’m trying to [help] her [to] follow the rules, follow the directions.

‘She has to eat soft food, you can’t suck out of a straw and you can’t examine it, which means pulling down the lip.’ 

‘It’s painful,’ Consuelos then told the audience. ‘But she famously doesn’t feel pain. 

‘When she goes to the dentist, she doesn’t really use the Novocaine. But this one hurts. So, I know it’s bad.’

The Daily Mail reached out to Ripa’s rep for comment at the time, who said: ‘Kelly is taking some time off and we have awesome co-hosts.’ 

Ripa has not been back on the show since, ultimately missing two weeks before the show started a hiatus for the summer. She is set to return in September when season 39 premieres.