Facts of Life’s Geri Jewell Has ‘Titanium Neck’ After Car Accident, Needs Botox for Muscle Pain: ‘I Have the Neck of a 12-Year-Old’

Geri Jewell — who famously raised visibility for people with cerebral palsy when she played Blair’s cousin Geri on the 1980s sitcom The Facts of Life — shared that while she’s had additional health issues as she ages, she’s managing them with “a sense of humor.”

The actress and diversity instructor, 68, who also struggles with hearing loss, appeared on Steve Kmetko’s Still Here Hollywood podcast on Monday, March 24.

“It’s challenging because now I have other issues with aging. Walking isn’t as easy as it used to be,” Jewell said on the podcast. “I’ve had a certain gait, but my balance is not near as good. My hearing is impaired even more, and I get very, very frustrated.”

As the U.S. Centers for Disease Control explains, cerebral palsy is a group of disorders that impact a person’s ability to walk, move, or maintain balance. Compounding her struggle, Jewell said, is that she broke her neck in 1999, requiring emergency surgery. 

“My neck is now 45% titanium, and it’s pretty strong. But this cerebral palsy still wants to move my head all over the place,” the groundbreaking stand-up comic explained, “and my neck is going, ‘No. I can’t do that.’ “

Due to the chronic pain, she says she gets two vials of Botox injected into her neck and shoulders every three months. “I have dystonia, which I always had, but I never realized it,” Jewell said, explaining the muscle disorder — which causes involuntary contractions — as causing her “neck [to be] pulled to one side.”

“I have a titanium neck, I know when the Botox is wearing off because it’s pulling even farther,” she explained. “So I have a lot of issues, but so does everybody else when they age.” 

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“I must say your neck is very smooth. I don’t see a wrinkle on it,” Kmetko said. 

“I have the neck of a 12-year-old,” she replied.

“You have a good sense of humor, too,” Kmetko added.

“I’m very blessed,” Jewell replied. “All the challenges that I’ve had — that everybody has in life — It’s a sense of humor that’s gonna get us through it. Because, if I couldn’t laugh once a while, I’d be in a loony bin. I have to laugh. You have to.”