Kim Kardashian opens up about the rare skin condition she passed on to her son

Throughout the years, Kim Kardashian has never shied away from being open and candid with fans about her struggles with psoriasis. But now, she’s revealing how the auto-immune disorder has affected her son.

The reality star and SKIMS founder made an appearance this week on the She MD podcast, where she opened up even more about her journey with her psoriasis, including how it’s affected her over the years and some of the treatments she’s tried to relieve her symptoms. But then she gave a surprising update, revealing that she’s passed it on to her son in the form of a different, even rarer skin condition.

“It came from my mom, went to me … and I passed it on in a different form to my son, who has vitiligo very mildly,” she explained.

Vitiligo is a condition that causes pigment to be lost from certain areas of the skin. Thankfully, in this case, it seems like Kardashian has found treatments that help.

“We got it under control,” she added.

Kardashian is a mom to two sons, 8-year-old Saint and 5-year-old Psalm. But she didn’t specify which one has the skin condition.

According to the Mayo Clinic, psoriasis is “a skin disease that causes a rash with itchy, scaly patches, most commonly on the knees, elbows, trunk and scalp.” It’s a chronic condition that has no cure, and often goes through cycles where it flares for weeks or months at a time, and then subsides. Flare-ups can be triggered by many different things, but common triggers include infections, cuts or burns, and certain medications. Kardashian has been open about suffering from both psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, a related condition that causes joint pain and stiffness during flare-ups.

On an earlier appearance on the She MD podcast, Kardashian talked about getting ready for this year’s Met Gala while battling a particularly bad flare-up.

“When I started to get a little bit desperate was when it started to cover my face, and there was a spot really close to my eye, and it would just burn a little bit,” she told the hosts, plus guest rheumatologist Dr. Daniel Wallace. “I remember I had the Met Ball coming up that week and it was covering my face.”

Kardashian had also spoken to Allure at the time about battling both her psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis while prepping for the Met. 

“Psoriasis broke out over my body and I got psoriatic arthritis, so I couldn’t really move my hands,” she told the magazine. “I had to go to a rheumatologist who put me on a steroid. I was freaking out. I cut out the meat again, and it’s calmed down.”