Amanza Smith’s ‘Selling Sunset’ co-stars rallied around her amid her recent health struggles.
The 46-year-old star was hospitalized with osteomyelitis – a rare, potentially life-threatening bone infection – back in June, and Amanza has now revealed that her co-stars, including Chelsea Lazkani, Nicole Young and Jason and Brett Oppenheim, were all by her side , when she recovered.
Amanza told PEOPLE, “I mention a lot on the show … The Oppenheim group is really like family. I don’t have my family out here. I don’t have a lot of super close family. I’ve known Jason and Brett for 22 years, so they’re became family.
“My kids call them Uncle Brett and Uncle Jason. We always do Friendsgiving together. I know their mom and dad very well, cousins, all that stuff.”
Amanza noted that everyone was “really supportive” throughout her recovery.
She shared: “Jason brought me headphones at one point because I was talking about the sounds you hear in the middle of the night.
“At one point there was a patient who sounded like he was in my closet, that’s how loud it was – but he was in another room. He was coughing and coughing. It was hard to hear people who were in pain. Or you hear ‘code blue’ often.
“Obviously it’s not something you can easily sleep through, it’s a lot of things you don’t want to hear, so he brought me headphones.”
Amanza returned home in early July. However, the TV star recently revealed that she remains “restricted” in her movements.
She told PEOPLE, “There are so many things I can’t do because I can’t lift more than five pounds.
“Sometimes my wallet is too heavy. You can’t speed up time, but I’m very keen to be able to do the things I love to do. I like to decorate. I like to rearrange. I want to able to hang things, but I’m very limited right now.”
