Read his lips: Sichuan Beef Proper, baked stuffed lobster, whiskey steak, chicken fajitas. There’s nothing like a good meal to chase those S&L; blues away.
George Bush, who never met a menu he didn’t like, eats out in restaurants about once a month–more than any President in recent history. Whenever he finds himself with a free evening and a craving for Chinese food, he slips out of the White House and into a corner table for a little Yan Chow fried rice. Just like your average all-American guy.
Well, not exactly. Where the President is concerned, there’s no such thing as a casual dinner on the town.
Your average guy doesn’t have someone who brings special bottled water for him to drink. Or salt, pepper and sugar for his table. Or an entourage of White House staff, Secret Service and reporters in tow.
Not to mention the food taster.
Yes, Virginia, the President does have a food taster. And no, the White House will not comment on food tasters–or anything else, for that matter–when it comes to protecting the Presidential palate.
But whenever the chief executive goes out to eat, there’s a man in the kitchen standing over the food. Sometimes he just watches; sometimes he digs right in.
The night the First Couple went to I Ricchi, an Italian restaurant in downtown Washington, the food taster washed their plates, glasses and utensils before the meal and kept them in sight at all times; tasted every dish to be served to the President; watched as the food was put on the plates and served; and uncorked and tasted the bottle of wine reserved exclusively for the President and Mrs. Bush.
In April, right after traces of benzene were found in Perrier water, Bush joked with an audience in Indianapolis: “I’m sorry I couldn’t get over here to have lunch with you today; I wasn’t allowed to. On the way over I was notified that the Secret Service had found my food taster face down in the salad. Somebody had washed my lettuce with Perrier.”
Traditionally, Presidents give up public dining when they move into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Nixon occasionally strolled across Lafayette Square, Secret Service alongside, for dinner at Trader Vic’s at the Capital Hilton. Ford and Carter rarely dined out. The Reagans, especially after the assassination attempt in 1981, kept close to the White House for meals. When Nancy Reagan did venture out, she favored the cloistered atmosphere of the Jockey Club.
But George Bush, determined to maintain as normal a lifestyle as possible, roars out of the Oval Office and into one of his favorite restaurants at the drop of a Daily Special.
The restaurants love it, of course. It inevitably boosts business. And it’s a big thrill for other customers.
But any spontaneous jaunt is a complicated logistical maneuver for the Secret Service. His security staff gets nervous when the President goes out in public and even more nervous when he does it unexpectedly. But these excursions are safer than his announced appearances in two respects: There’s the element of surprise–what the public doesn’t know can’t hurt him. And he goes out to restaurants so often, they’ve got the drill down pat.
When George and Robert Tsui get a call from the Secret Service reserving Table N-17, they know exactly what to expect.
By now, the two brothers who run the Peking Gourmet Inn in Falls Church are old hands at handling the hullabaloo that accompanies a visit from the First Customer–it’s the President’s favorite spot for a family dinner. Bush has been a VIP customer of the restaurant for the past five years and still stops by every couple of months: He came right before his inauguration, on the eve of the trips to Poland and Colombia, and to celebrate his son Marvin’s birthday, to name a few occasions.
“They treat this, just like any other American family, as their little favorite Chinese restaurant,” says Robert Tsui. “We try to be as low-key as we can.”
Low-key, all things considered. The President is brought in one of the restaurant’s seven doors; it varies each time and is always a last-minute decision by the security detail. There are Secret Service agents and police both inside and surrounding the restaurant. Customers are waved with a portable metal detector when they arrive for dinner. And then there’s the taster . . . er, make that “nutrition expert.”
“When President Bush was vice president, he didn’t have a nutrition expert in the kitchen,” says George Tsui. “After he became President, the nutrition expert stays in the kitchen to understand what he’s eating.”
The President sits at a big round table in a partitioned area that has a bulletproof window installed by the Tsuis. The Secret Service waits right on the other side of the partition, and only the Tsuis and waiter Tak Chung Pang–all wearing official pins–are allowed past. Bush reportedly wields a mean chopstick and is partial to the Sichuan Beef Proper, a spicy shredded-beef dish with roasted sesame seeds; Peking duck; and the giant spring onions the Tsuis grow on their Virginia farm.
After dinner the President comes into the dining room to greet customers. “There’s no better attraction than the No. 1 man–wherever you go,” says Robert Tsui. “Whether they are Democrat or Republican, whether they politically agree with the man or not, they always love the fact that they’re dining with him.”
An “above average” tipper (20%), Bush pays most of the time by check, which the Tsuis cash. “The thing is, it would be abusing the privilege not to cash the check, because the check may be more valuable uncashed,” Robert explained. “We cash them out of respect to the President.”
But elsewhere in the country, there’s at least one Bush check on display: “George Bush, Business Account, The White House”–now hanging on the wall of Patsy Clark’s restaurant in Spokane, Wash.
House Speaker Tom Foley invited Bush, who was visiting Washington state for its centennial celebration, to join him, his wife, Heather, and Environmental Protection Agency Director Bill Reilly for dinner there last fall. Foley had intended to pick up the tab, but the President pulled rank and paid the $121 bill with a check for $140.
The next morning, a newspaper article said owner Tony Anderson planned to keep and frame the check as a souvenir. “About 2 p.m. that day, a Secret Service guy showed up at the restaurant with an envelope,” says Anderson. “It was a thank-you note from Bush with $140 in cash enclosed. He wanted to pay for dinner. He was insistent on it.”
Anderson only had 20 minutes’ notice of the Presidential supper, which had been reserved under the name of an assistant to the President. There were Secret Service agents “everywhere–35 or 40 guys” including, says Anderson, the one who brought salt, pepper, sugar and bottled water for the table in a shopping bag. The food taster watched, but did not sample, the President’s medium-rare Jack Daniel’s whiskey steak. Anderson found out later that the Secret Service had been visiting his restaurant for two weeks, posing as regular customers, and had the place thoroughly staked out.
“He was a wonderful person to have as a customer,” says Anderson. But having both Bush and Foley under his roof was nonetheless nerve-racking. “I was thinking, ‘These guys are two of the most powerful people in the world. What if something happens?’ I was actually sort of relieved when they left.”
Until it happens, no restaurant can imagine what goes into a visit from the President.
The operative word is secret .
Palm owner Wally Ganzi, who is also a personal friend of the President, knew several weeks in advance that the Bushes would join him and his wife, Reva, along with actress Cheryl Ladd and her husband, Brian Russell, for sirloin steak, onion rings and cheesecake last November. But his staff was told only the day before, when the Secret Service arrived to inspect the premises.
“Someone should pay the Secret Service a compliment,” says Ganzi. “They really try their best in every possible way. They’re not rude, very courteous. They really try not to disturb your business. They don’t strong-arm you.” The one thing they really concentrate on is egress–the quickest way to get the President out if there’s a problem.
Christianne and Francesco Ricchi, on the other hand, got the shock of their lives when I Ricchi’s owners found out they’d be cooking for a very VIP guest–only one month after the restaurant opened last year.
“My husband approached me and said, ‘You will never guess who’s coming to dinner,’ ” says Christianne Ricchi. “The Secret Service flashed their badges and says, ‘Are you the owner?’ He thought it was immigration.”
The couple only had two hours’ notice to prepare for the presidential appearance at the dinner, hosted by former Bush speech writer Vic Gold. “Our concern was making sure that everything was absolutely perfect,” says Christianne Ricchi.
Meanwhile, the Secret Service searched the restaurant, brought in bomb-sniffing dogs, stationed men outside all the entrances and on the roof across the street, and brought in the food taster, who played an unusually active role–sampling all the food and wine.
Time and security were equally tight in May when the Bushes joined former Republican National Committee chairman Dean Burch and his wife, Pat, for dinner at La Chaumiere in Georgetown. Antoine de Ponfilly, who served the Presidential party, found out at 5 p.m. that “someone important” was coming that night, but the Secret Service would not say who it was.
The Secret Service chose the private room upstairs for the President and then positioned two men on the roof, two in the back, three on the stairs and “a lot” in front of the tiny French restaurant, de Ponfilly says.
When the Bushes went up to eat, customers were inspected with portable metal detectors but didn’t find out who was in the restaurant until Bush came downstairs after dinner.
It was more down-home last July at Rio Grande Cafe, the Tex-Mex restaurant in Bethesda, when Bush and fellow Texan Robert Mosbacher, the secretary of commerce, came in for quesadillas, cheese enchiladas, beef and chicken fajitas and the specialty of the house: mesquite-broiled quail.
Manager Jerry Green noticed two police cars in front of the restaurant when he arrived at 3 p.m. Three hours later, the Secret Service toured the restaurant and picked a table for Bush in a back corner.
The food taster asked Green to point out what food would be served to the Presidential party. Green pointed to the 40 pounds of beef already cooking on the grill.
“He got the same old stuff that everybody gets here,” says Green. “Honestly, I’m not going to change my food just for the President. But I did give him an extra quail. I figured I could do that much for him.”
The party lasted two hours and everyone else in the restaurant lingered to watch Bush tackle his fajitas; since he sat facing the front, the customers could get a good look.
“Nobody would leave,” says Green. “The Secret Service finally closed the door when we were filled to capacity with a two-hour wait.”
After Mosbacher paid the bill with his American Express card, Green grabbed the chair Bush had been sitting in “right after he finished with it.” Within two days it was back on the floor–painted red, white and blue.
When Mabel Hanson of Mabel’s Lobster Claw Restaurant in Kennebunkport, Me., curls her hair, you know something’s up.
“The President said, ‘Hiya, Mabel. How are you? What are you all dressed up for?’ ” says Hanson, who just happened to be spiffed up when Bush dropped by last year. “I cried when he came–just a few sniffles. I can’t help it. It’s the President coming through your door.”
Mabel’s has been a Bush family favorite for almost 20 years. There’s a whole wall devoted to the Bushes: lots of pictures of George and Barbara, a few of George and Mabel, a portrait of the President with “He’s Our George” above it and a banner from the President’s inauguration–Mabel’s first trip ever to Washington.
You can usually pick out the Secret Service: They’re the only guys in Kennebunkport wearing suits.
Bush sits at his favorite corner table, where he usually has lobster stuffed with sea scallops. He’s “not too much for desserts” but occasionally treats himself to butter-crunch ice cream or Mabel’s famous peanut butter ice cream pie.
“These people couldn’t change if they tried,” she says. “They’re as natural as grass growing.”
Earlier this month, the Bushes and daughter Dorothy Bush LeBlond went to the Breakwater Inn in Kennebunkport with Bush golfing buddy Spike Heminway, his wife, Betsy, and daughter Alex. Unlike most dinner visits, owner Carolyn Lambert got advance word when Heminway made the reservation the night before and said the Bushes would be joining them.
“It was very important to me that this didn’t get out of hand,” Lambert says. “I told my employees when they came in the next night, ‘If you told any of your friends to come down here and hang around, call them back and tell them not to come.’ ”
In the morning, the Secret Service and a White House staffer showed up and told Lambert, “There need to be people in the dining room. If Mr. Bush felt you were going to lose business because of him, he would be unhappy.”
The restaurant, not surprisingly, was full of the inn’s regular customers and a few enterprising reporters who had wheedled reservations that afternoon for the remaining tables. Except for the food taster in the kitchen, it was a typical Sunday-night dinner in Maine. The President had the pan-fried chicken breast special and mud pie.
When Bush goes to his other hometown, he usually makes a beeline for Otto’s Barbecue in Houston, where he chows down on pork ribs or link sausage with beans.
On his first visit there as President, the Secret Service checked out the bathrooms and sneaked Bush through the back door into the back dining room. “But the customers knew something was up,” says manager June Sofka. “Then the President came in the main dining room and shook hands with everybody. It was just exhilarating.”
“I was busy running around so I didn’t get my picture taken with the President. But I picked up his plate and the silverware and took it home. I still have it.”
For Arteta, building a legacy of sustained success is the ambition. Winning once is impressive, but repeating it is the mark of a truly great team.
With the Spaniard’s contract up at the end of the next season, the immediate priority for all parties is to agree an extension.
That process is under way and will accelerate after the Champions League final, with a will from all parties to have the new contract tied up before next season.
The expectation is Arteta will sign a new contract that will earn him a sharp increase on his current financial package of a basic £10m per season plus a further £5m for Champions League qualification.
There has been some internal talk, too, about Berta possibly engaging in conversations to extend his contract having been linked with potential moves to Saudi Arabia.
Arsenal are a club now moulded in Arteta’s image, with his job title changing from head coach to manager in September 2020.
The manager sits on the football leadership team with Kroenke, Garlick, James King and Berta. It is that five-man group that makes decisions on the direction of football at the club.
Arteta’s coaching staff are like him – passionate and intense, with even the analysts shouting from the stands.
And the manager was joined last summer by long-term friend and former team-mate Gabriel Heinze, who is an assistant coach. The Argentine has had a big impact this season, and has introduced a motivational huddle for defenders before each game.
Arteta is very hands-on and knows when to make an impact on his players with a strong telling-off and when he should coach.
But he has become good at delegating, too, with all of the backroom team delivering sessions so the squad don’t get tired of hearing one voice.
And now Arteta has guided this group to silverware, the focus can shift to the next campaign.
Arsenal are keen to recruit a midfielder, left-winger and striker, but we should expect a sharper focus on outgoings after last year’s £250m splurge.
The only senior player to depart last summer was Albert Lokonga.
This time, Arsenal have already agreed to sell defender Jakub Kiwior to Porto for an initial £14.7m. It is understood Christian Norgaard, who arrived in a deal worth up to £15m, will be allowed to leave, and the club are expected to listen to offers for Ben White, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Fabio Vieira.
Arsenal are also giving consideration to a significant homegrown sale that would represent ‘pure profit’ on their balance sheet.
There have been internal discussions about selling Nwaneri, who is on loan at Marseille, or Lewis-Skelly though the latter’s emergence as a genuine central-midfield option for Arteta in recent weeks has been noted.
There is also a desire to keep the wage bill manageable. That is easier said than done, though, with defender Jurrien Timber and midfielder Declan Rice both in line for new deals in the not-too-distant future and Gabriel Magalhaes, William Saliba, Lewis-Skelly, Saka and Nwaneri having recently renewed their contracts.
With lucrative bonuses to be paid to players in light of this season’s success – not to mention the expectation Arteta’s salary will move closer to the £20m mark – keeping a rein on the club’s overheads will not be easy.
There is a growing sense behind the scenes the club must start planning a squad rebuild given a number of key players are in their late 20s.
This summer, they have a keen interest in Leicester teenager Jeremy Monga, and with Dowman, Marli Salmon, Edwin and Holger Quintero and Lewis-Skelly all in their teens, there is hope the rebuild may not prompt a noticeable drop in levels.
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Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s public expectations that incoming Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh will cut interest rates, one investment expert believes the central bank may actually be forced to move in the opposite direction.
Skyler Weinand, Chief Investment Officer at
On a six-game unbeaten run and nine points further up the table than their opponents, Brighton arrived at Liverpool’s St Helens stadium as favourites – but their Wembley dream was in serious jeopardy when they fell 2-0 down after 22 minutes.
Manuela Vanegas gave Brighton hope when she halved the deficit with a determined finish 105 seconds after Beata Olsson had scored the Reds’ second.
The Seagulls looked revitalised after the break and they were rewarded when Madison Haley nodded in the leveller.
“They found it difficult in the first half but they stuck to the task with intensity and energy,” former England defender Anita Asante said on TNT Sports.
Manager Dario Vidosic said he “felt like it was coming” when Brighton were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the hosts’ box in the final seconds.
“I didn’t even think about extra time, even though it was so close to it. It just felt like the momentum, how dominant we were, that the goal was bound to come,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
Noordam, who had never previously scored for Brighton, had only been on the pitch for a matter of minutes when the set-piece clearance rolled to her and she calmly slotted the ball into the top-left corner.
“What a moment from Nadine Noordam,” said ex-England midfielder Fara Williams on TNT Sports.
“Brighton had a really slow start but they managed to claw their way back. It’s a credit to them. They really believe in what they’re doing.
“That’s what this competition is all about. That’s the history of this competition. Those last-minute moments that get to Wembley.”
Published On 10 May 202610 May 2026
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that his country’s war on Ukraine may be “coming to an end” and expressed a willingness to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a third country if a peace deal is finalised.
Putin made the comments to reporters on Saturday, hours after promising victory in Ukraine at Russia’s most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years.
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The remarks came as Russia and Ukraine began a three-day ceasefire and agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners, in developments that raised cautious hopes of renewed diplomatic progress.
At the parade, Putin praised Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, framing their mission as a “just cause” against “an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc”.
“Victory has always been and will be ours,” he added, as columns of troops lined up on Moscow’s Red Square.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Putin blamed Western “globalist elites” for the war, saying they had promised NATO would not expand eastward after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, but then tried to draw Ukraine into the European Union’s orbit.
He then declared, “I think the matter is coming to an end.”
Russia’s annual Victory Day holiday marks the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II and honours the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in the conflict.
This year’s parade was more subdued than usual, with videos of military hardware shown on giant screens rather than tanks and missile systems rolling through Red Square.
For the first time, Saturday’s parade featured troops from North Korea, a tribute to Pyongyang that sent its soldiers to fight alongside Moscow’s forces to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
Russia had declared a unilateral ceasefire for the holiday on Friday and Saturday, while Zelenskyy announced a truce that was supposed to begin on May 6, but neither held, and the parties traded blame for the continuing attacks.
Fears for the festivities eased on Friday, when US President Donald Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine had bowed to his request for a ceasefire running Saturday through Monday and an exchange of prisoners.
“This Ceasefire will include a suspension of all kinetic activity, and also a prison swap of 1,000 prisoners from each Country,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social Post on Friday.
“Talks are continuing” on ending the war, Trump said, adding that “we are getting closer and closer every day”.
“Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War,” he said.
Zelenskyy followed up on Trump’s statement with a decree mockingly permitting Russia to hold its Victory Day celebrations, declaring Red Square temporarily off-limits for Ukrainian strikes.
The Kremlin shrugged off the comments as a “silly joke”.
Zelenskyy has previously proposed to meet with Putin to negotiate a peace deal, but has dismissed the Russian leader’s suggestion that he come to Moscow. On Saturday, Putin told reporters he could meet with Zelenskyy in another country, but only to endorse a comprehensive accord.
“A meeting in a third country is also possible, but only after a peace treaty aimed at a long-term historic perspective is finalised,” Putin said. “This should be a final deal, not the negotiations.”
Putin, who has governed Russia as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, faces a wave of anxiety in Moscow about the war in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, left swaths of Ukraine in ruins, and drained Russia’s $3 trillion economy.
Russian troops have been fighting in Ukraine for more than four years. That is longer than Soviet forces fought in World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.
But Russian forces have so far been unable to take the whole of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces have been pushed back to a line of fortress cities. Russian advances have slowed this year, though Moscow controls just under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.
European Council President Antonio Costa said last week that there was potential for talks between Europe and Russia on the continent’s future security architecture.
Asked on Saturday if he was willing to engage in talks with the Europeans, Putin said the preferable figure for him was Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder.
“For me personally, the former chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr Schroder, is preferable,” Putin said.
PLANS for a mega new city centre leisure facility costing £36million have been unveiled.
The first designs include two swimming pools, a cafe, a family play area, health and wellbeing rooms, a fitness suite, and a number of studios.
Peterborough City Council said plans have been finalised after consultation with residents, with further details set to go on public display at a drop-in session on Tuesday, May 19.
A planning application is due to be submitted in July, with construction at the Embankment site set to begin early next year.
The sports hub will then open in 2028, housing the city’s only public indoor swimming pool after Peterborough’s Regional Pool was demolished last year due to structural issues.
It is set to have a 25-metre eight-lane pool, as well as another 20-metre activity pool with a movable floor, among a range of other facilities.
Members of the public will have an opportunity to talk to the design team at the drop-in session later this month, with further information provided on sustainability, floor plans, timelines, and transport options.
Jamie Fenton, culture, sports and leisure partnership manager at the council, said: “We know that residents are still feeling the loss of the Regional Fitness and Swimming Centre and that is why we are moving as quickly as we can to deliver a new, modern facility for the city.
“We had a fantastic response to the initial engagement activity earlier in the year and we have used what people told us to develop the next phase of planning and designs.”
He added: “It is really exciting to be at a stage where we can show these to people and start having conversations around what a new leisure development will offer our residents.”
According to the council, £20million of the site’s funding has come from the government’s Growth Mission Fund, while £16million has been committed by the authority.
The development is still looking for private funding and grants “to assist with the costs”.
At 11 years old, Alex thought he was going on holiday. Instead, he vanished for six years.
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Several people told the BBC they experienced delusions after intense conversations with AI.
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WE ARE just six weeks away from the start of the World Cup and the UK’s capital is getting THREE fan attractions for watching the matches.
Launching across three London venues, Kick Off Club will open three new World Cup fanzones.
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One will be at the Outernet on Tottenham Court Road, another will be at Electric Brixton in South London and the third will be at Colour Factory in Hackney Wick.
Each fanzone won’t have food for sale, but you will be able to get drinks, including drinks packages.
At the Outernet fanzone, fans will find London’s largest indoor screen.
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But the experience won’t just be your standard football screening, as there will be a surround sound system fully immersing visitors in each match.
Matches being shown at the Outernet include:
At the Electric Brixton fanzone, guests can expect Britpop-inspired football screenings with Indie music and a 90s theme.
Expect music by Oasis, Blur and Pulp booming through the speakers.
Matches being shown at Electric Brixton include:
As for Colour Factory, there will be a ‘Rave Energy‘ theme with lasers, smoke and a underground vibe.
There will be club lighting and DJ sets too, making it feel like the ultimate 90s laser rave.
Matches being shown at Colour Factory include:
All fanzones will then show the following:
Tickets will be between £5 and £20 for groups.
Fans can pre-register for tickets, which then go on sale on May 5.
A NEW £15million train station is set to open this summer in a pretty English market town, making it easier than ever to reach a stunning national park.
Excitement is already building ahead of its launch, with a brand new billboard unveiled, teasing a summer opening.
The new Okehampton Interchange station is currently under construction in Okehampton, right on the edge of Dartmoor National Park.
Posting online, Devon & Cornwall’s Great Scenic Railways said: “Hurrah! Shiny new billboard in Okehampton to promote the town’s second station, which opens this summer.”
They added the sign will be updated once the official opening date is announced.
Rail bosses say the long-awaited addition will make it far easier for visitors to reach the scenic beauty spot and surrounding countryside.
Thanks to its vicinity to the National Park, the scenic town is the perfect place for anyone who enjoys outdoor activities such as riding, swimming, fishing and golf.
It’s also home to the second oldest Norman Castle in the county. It lies in ruins now but is still a place to marvel at for any history buffs.
The £15million project forms part of wider upgrades to the Dartmoor Line, linking the town with Exeter and beyond.
Once open, the new station is expected to boost tourism by improving access to Dartmoor’s rolling hills, walking trails and outdoor activities.
It will sit close to the A30 and aims to serve the growing eastern side of the town, while easing traffic in the centre.
The interchange will also help reduce pressure on parking at the existing Okehampton station, which will remain open.
Plans for the site include cycle parking, electric vehicle charging points, and better walking and bus links to encourage greener travel.
Construction is well underway, with a footbridge, lift shaft and platform already taking shape.
Last fall, “Dr. Pimple Popper” suddenly became a patient herself.
Dr. Sandra Lee, the reality TV dermatologist and surgeon known for tackling ick-inducing skin situations on camera, had a bad day a week before Thanksgiving 2025 while she was taping new episodes of her show at her Upland office.
“I had what I thought was a hot flash. I got super sweaty and didn’t feel like myself,” she told People in an interview published Tuesday. She said she finished the shoot and then headed to her parents’ nearby home, where that evening she experienced shooting pains in one leg and later had trouble navigating down a flight of stairs in the middle of the night.
When she awakened the next day, she said, her left side wasn’t working properly and she was having trouble speaking clearly. It was definitely more than a hot flash.
Her doctor dad — also a dermatologist — told her to get herself to an ER, where she had an MRI that showed evidence of an ischemic stroke, where a vessel supplying blood to the brain gets obstructed. The diagnosis was a shock.
“As a physician I couldn’t deny that I had slurred speech, that I was having weakness on one side,” she said, “but I was like, ‘Well, this is a dream, right?’”
Lee, 55, said unmanaged cholesterol levels and high blood pressure were likely contributors to the stroke, plus the stress of balancing her real-life practice with the demands of “Dr. Pimple Popper.” She returned to production in January, she said, though she was more than a little freaked out.
“I don’t like that I don’t have total control of my left hand or the grip wasn’t as strong. If I feel like I’m not at my best — it’s very scary,” Lee said.
Her neurologist told the outlet that Lee’s symptoms are pretty much gone. Lee said she still notices slight differences when she speaks.
The TV doc is on blood thinners now and is still doing some physical therapy after spending two months post-stroke working through PT and occupational therapy. Lee had to make sure her left hand, among other body parts, was functional and that her balance and movement bounced back.
She does, after all, do precise procedures on camera for the Lifetime audience.
And with new episodes of “Dr. Pimple Popper” set to debut Monday for the first time since 2023, Lee remains fascinated by the people who spend time watching her do extractions and excisions, both on the show and online.
“People watch the videos over and over again because it helps them go to sleep at night,” she told People. But, she added, “Others watch it like it’s a scary movie or a roller coaster.”
