For nearly as long as she can remember, rapper Snoop Dogg’s daughter Cori Broadus has been taking medications. Diagnosed with the autoimmune disorder lupus at just six years old, Cori’s childhood was, in part, a constant routine of syringes, steroids, and pills to manage symptoms like hair loss, joint pains, and fatigue.
“It was just a lot, mentally and physically,” she tells Women’s Health. “I felt alone. Seeing that everybody else was okay, I was like, ‘What is wrong with me? Why is this happening?'”
After years of the “exhausting” routine, Cori decided to stop taking her medications in 2023, switching to “natural” therapies like teas and supplements, and then ultimately quitting everything cold turkey. (You shouldn’t stop or switch your medication without consulting your doctor.) In response, her face began breaking out, which was only a precursor to a much larger health scare: In January, she had a stroke.
Here’s what to know about Cori’s illness, plus how she’s doing now.
Cori was diagnosed with lupus when she was six.
When Cori was little, she and her family—which includes parents Snoop Dogg and Shante Broadus, plus brothers Cordell, Corde, and Julian—visited San Diego every summer. But one year, she got a butterfly rash on her face, a distinct sign of lupus.
“My body would hurt—achy joints, headaches, super fatigued,” she said. “I was just in pain and we didn’t really know what was going on.”
Ultimately, Cori was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease in which your body’s immune system attacks your own tissues and organs, per the Mayo Clinic.
In 2024, she had a stroke.
After years of taking medications to manage her lupus symptoms—through liquids and syringes when she was little, then pills as she got older—Cori grew weary of her regime. At first, she went to a holistic doctor to try and “heal myself naturally;” then, she quit all lupus therapies altogether.
But one day in January, her left leg and arm became weak. She went to sleep in the hopes it would get better, but when she woke up, the pain had only gotten worse: She had to have her fiancé Wayne Duece carry to her the bathroom and wipe her. Then, she tried to eat Mexican takeout, and the food “was just falling out of my mouth.”
Initially, the couple wrote her symptoms off as lupus symptoms. But once she could no longer hold up her plate, Wayne decided to take her to the hospital.
“When I got to the E.R., they were like ‘Were you aware you had a stroke?'” she said. “I was asleep for nine hours while having a stroke, and you could die off of that. You’re never supposed to go to sleep when you’re having a stroke. I could have easily gone into a coma.”
Cori’s stroke was, in part, due to her lupus, since the condition puts her at a higher risk of blood clots, she said.
Cori remained in the hospital for a week.
At the same time she had her stroke, Cori was experiencing a bad lupus flare-up because she wasn’t taking her medications, including CellCept, which is an immunosuppressant.
“Because I went cold turkey with the medication—I even stopped taking the holistic medicine—my body just had nothing,” she said. “My kidneys were failing. They were talking about dialysis.”
Cori called the hospital stay “the worst seven days of her life,” but was ultimately discharged.
Now, she’s prioritizing her health.
Since Cori left the hospital, she’s been feeling a whole lot better. She’s back on her typical medication regime, sees her rheumatologist every four weeks, and has been focusing on eating a balanced diet.
“I love dairy. I love cheese, fries, hot wings with ranch. But I tell myself, ‘You can have those things, Cori, but you can’t have it every day,'” she said. “I’ve been trying to do more fruit, more nuts, more water. I love water. I’m such a water girly, so water is nothing to me.”
She’s also been attempting to switch her mindset around wellness, focusing on what she could gain instead of what she’s lost. Part of her regimen includes injections twice a day, so after she does one, she thinks, “Okay, you did it. This is to protect you and to make sure that you don’t have another stroke because do you want to sit in the hospital again for a week. This is a part of your story.”
“I’m just trying to be content with where I’m at. We’re all human and when we have downtime, we be in our thoughts: ‘Why me? Why is this happening? Why do I have to do this?'” she says. “But it helps to be able to hear how I overcame it and how I’m still standing strong and tall.”
Watch the rest of Cori’s story in the finale of Snoop Dogg’s Fatherhood: Cori & Wayne’s Story, which airs December 19 at 9/8c on E!
Charlotte Walsh (she/her) is an associate news editor with Women’s Health, where she covers the intersection of wellness and entertainment. Previously, she worked as a writer at The Messenger, E! News, and Netflix. In her free time, she enjoys reality television, tennis and films starring Nicole Kidman.
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