Singer Jewel Recalls Being Homeless, Nearly Dying in an Emergency Room Parking Lot After a Hospital Turned Her Away
Singer Jewel Recalls Being Homeless, Nearly Dying in an Emergency Room Parking Lot After a Hospital Turned Her Away
Staff AuthorTue, May 5, 2026 at 8:42 PM UTC
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JewelCredit: Jesse Grant/WWD via Getty -
Jewel was once near-death when she was turned away from a hospital and saved by a kind doctor
In a 2023 interview that recently resurfaced on Instagram, the '90s folk icon shared the story
"I almost died in an emergency room parking lot because they didn't see me because I didn't have insurance," she said
Jewel was once homeless and near death until a doctor saved her life by handing her antibiotics and his business card.
In a 2023 interview on the PBS program Tell Me More that recently resurfaced on Instagram, the '90s folk icon (born Jewel Kilcher) shared: "I almost died in an emergency room parking lot because they didn't see me because I didn't have insurance."
"Luckily, a doctor had seen me get turned me away and he went out and he knocked on my door and he handed me antibiotics and his card," the 51-year-old shared. "And he saved my life, it turned out I had sepsis."
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Jewel in 1995Credit: Margaret C. Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
She added: "This was just the most transformative time in my life."
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The singer-songwriter opened up about her youth — and the pain of being raised by her 'abusive' father, Atz, in Homer, Alaska — in a 2020 interview with PEOPLE, saying, "My mom [Lenedra Carroll] left when I was 8 years old, and my dad took over raising me and my brothers at that age."
"My dad had really bad PTSD [from serving in the Vietnam war], but those words weren't really known at the time," she added.
Jewel moved off her family's homestead at age 15 and into a cabin of her own, sharing, "I ended up homeless because I wouldn't have sex with a boss. I started living in my car because my boss wouldn't give me my paycheck. Then my car got stolen."
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In adulthood, Jewel and her father were able to reconcile their relationship after he went on his own journey toward healing in his 60s.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
