Kenan Thompson has revealed a health diagnosis after ‘suffering in silence’ for years.

The 46-year-old Saturday Night Live regular — who recently addressed Morgan Wallen’s viral walk-off — began struggling with severe heartburn over two years ago.

‘I noticed that I would get hoarse a lot easier when I’m doing the show. Losing my voice quicker, but also uncomfortable sleepless nights because I’m burping up acid, just kind of hiccuping all night,’ he recently shared.

‘And that can definitely add more stress to an already stressful kind of environment doing a live show like that. So all of those factors, I was like whatever, I’ll get over it. But it just started to pile up,’ the former child star shared with People.

He said he took action by steering clear of trigger foods and taking over-the-counter medicine, neither of which brought long-term relief.

Kenan opened up: ‘I was able to take something and patch it up for the moment, but I got to a point where that didn’t work anymore. That’s when it got serious.

‘It was a suffering-in-silence situation. I don’t know if I was necessarily embarrᴀssed to talk to a doctor — I just didn’t know if I needed to.’

Kenan Thompson has revealed a health diagnosis after ‘suffering in silence’ for years; pictured in 2022

In early 2024, when his symptoms were worst than ever, he saw a doctor and was diagnosed with GERD, or gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease occurs when stomach acid repeatedly flows back into the esophagus, per Johns Hopkins Medicine. 

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It’s also known as acid reflux, which can irritate the esophagus, pharynx or respiratory tract.

‘I didn’t know there was a real medical term for it,’ Thompson told People.

In the wake of his diagnosis his doctor prescribed Voquezna, with whom he is now in partnership via Phathom Pharmaceuticals.

‘I felt relief pretty immediately,’ the former Nickelodeon star remarked about his experience with the drug.

Last week he released a GERD IS NO JOKE campaign to bring awareness to the disease as well as shed light on the medication.

In a commercial shared online, Kenan portrays a chef in a fictional TV program called Kick Some Acid Cooking Show.

‘It’s nice to throw some humor into it because I like to have fun and a little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down,’ the comedian said. ‘I thought it’d be funny if there was a chef who couldn’t eat his own food because he is suffering in silence.’

The 46-year-old Saturday Night Live regular began struggling with severe heartburn over two years ago; pictured in September 2022

In the wake of his diagnosis his doctor prescribed Voquezna, with whom he is now in partnership via Phathom Pharmaceuticals

Thompson added about dealing with his health woe, ‘I’ve had good training with SNL, just trying to take the comedic approach to tougher topics and make it more palatable to discuss.

‘Sometimes you have to mᴀssage your way into it a little bit and just be like, “Alright, don’t freak out everybody, I’m doing a medication ad, but we need to do a deep dive on this.” So if I throw a character in it, there’s some familiarity to go along with the messaging.’

These days, the Hollywood veteran says he’s feeling better about maintaining his health.

‘God bless, I feel great,’ he noted. ‘I’m in a much healthier kind of space with my daily lifestyle and meal decision-making and all of that good stuff. I’m in a good place.’