In a bombshell interview last Saturday night, Aurora Brian — better known as Sleeping Beauty — told her side of the story for the first time since making national headlines 66 years ago. The exclusive conversation revealed that Brian’s situation was far from the fairy tale the tabloids had made it out to be.
“Of course everyone assumed I was a helpless woman waiting to be saved by a man,” Brian said, rolling her eyes. “No one even bothered asking me why I was sleeping.”
Around her 16th birthday, Brian began developing symptoms such as severe fatigue, brain fog and muscle pain. When she tried to see a doctor, however, she was put on a 13-month waitlist. As she awaited the appointment, she found herself sleeping most of the time — often up to 20 hours per day. This caught the attention of the media, who naturally spun her story into trad-wife inspiration porn.
As it turns out, the person portrayed in the stories as Maleficent was not an evil fairy who pricked Brian’s finger on a spinning wheel. It was Dr. Mallesh Chetan of Cleveland Clinic, who ordered blood tests for the patient once she got off the waitlist. Unfortunately, due to a lack of chronic illness research and the medical community’s general unwillingness to believe anything women say, Brian would go undiagnosed for the next six decades — which is still better than the average time it takes for someone with a chronic illness to get a diagnosis.
It was not until the COVID-19 pandemic that she was finally diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Brian has since found community through a Facebook group for “the princess-to-chronic-and-mental-illness pipeline,” which Meghan Markle is also a member of.
In the final segment of the interview, Brian was asked if she ever found her Prince Charming after all.
“Well, actually, I’m a lesbian,” she responded.