Hollywood icon Kathleen Turner made a rare public appearance this week, attending the Citymeals on Wheels charity gala in New York. HELLO! viewed photos from the event, which showed the Romancing the Stone actress, now 71, arriving gracefully in a wheelchair, her warm smile and elegant presence drawing admiration from fellow guests and photographers.
Kathleen looked radiant in an emerald green velvet outfit paired with black sneakers and a gold ring. Images captured her sitting confidently in her chair, a quiet testament to her enduring strength amid decades-long health challenges.
The Oscar-nominated star has long been open about her battle with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a chronic autoimmune disease that causes joint inflammation, fatigue and pain. In an interview with Vulture, she described the severity of her symptoms with raw honesty: "It’s hard to understand the level of pain that this disease brings." Kathleen was diagnosed in the early 1990s, during the height of her stardom — a time when autoimmune diseases were poorly understood in Hollywood and often cloaked in stigma.
"Rheumatoid arthritis hit in my late 30s, the last of my years in which Hollywood would consider me a sexually appealing leading lady," she previously shared. "At that time there was very little public knowledge about autoimmune diseases, so my illness was a source of bad mystery."
Despite the challenges, Kathleen continues to embrace life with determination. "I’m getting stronger all the time," she told the outlet. "So let’s find out what I can do."
According to the American College of Rheumatology, rheumatoid arthritis affects approximately 1.3 million Americans and can begin as early as age 30. Common symptoms include painful, swollen joints, loss of energy, fever and reduced appetite. HELLO! reached out to rheumatology experts to better understand the mobility challenges associated with RA, and Dr Marissa Lassere, a board-certified rheumatologist, explained:
"Mobility aids such as wheelchairs or scooters are often used intermittently by people with RA, even when their disease is stable," she says. "Flare-ups, fatigue or joint instability can make long periods of standing or walking difficult. Using a mobility aid isn’t a sign of regression, it’s a tool that protects joints, reduces pain and allows people to participate fully in social events."
She adds that modern RA treatments have advanced dramatically in the past 20 years. "Biologic therapies have been life-changing. Many patients can achieve remission or significantly reduced symptoms, but long-term joint damage from years prior may still affect mobility."
This aligns with guidance from the American College of Rheumatology: "Current treatments give most patients good or excellent relief of symptoms and let them keep functioning at, or near, normal levels."
Kathleen Turner remains most beloved for her electric chemistry with Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone and its sequel The Jewel of the Nile. The actress reflected on their on-screen spark in a 2021 interview with People: "Oh, I was yearning, babe," she confessed, referencing Douglas’s marriage to Diandra Luker at the time. "It was that wonderful sexual tension… When you really, really know you want somebody, and I’m saying it went both ways, and you can’t have them. It’s just lovely."