"I’m grateful to be healthy right now," Kelly tells PEOPLE in this week's issue as she shares a new album, 'God Must Really Love Me'
Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
NEED TO KNOW
- Tori Kelly reflects to PEOPLE on her 2023 hospitalization for life-threatening blood clots
- “I’m grateful to be healthy right now,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue
- Kelly continues to prioritize her health with preventative care
Tori Kelly gained a new perspective after her 2023 health scare.
The 33-year-old Grammy-winning singer's life is quite fruitful at the moment after welcoming her first son, Zayden Michael, in November 2025 with husband André Murillo and sharing a new album, God Must Really Love Me, earlier this month. It's a far cry from where she was a few years ago.
In July 2023, Kelly fainted while out for dinner with friends in Los Angeles and was taken to the hospital, where doctors found blood clots around her lungs and legs. The incident happened shortly before she was set to embark on a tour, which went forward as planned following her recovery.
Credit: Amanda Friedman
"Being hospitalized was such a crazy experience to go through," Kelly tells PEOPLE in this week's issue, "and I think it gave me a different perspective on just how fragile life is."
Looking back, the "Control" musician thinks the incident may have been "more scary for the people around me than it was for me."
"I always feel really bad for my husband and what he went through," says Kelly of Murillo, 36. "That's just so scary. Because I didn't really understand what was going on. I was just like, 'Why am I here? What's happening?' But I knew that something serious was happening, but I just didn't feel it."
Today, she declares, "I’m grateful to be healthy right now."
More than two years removed from the health scare, Kelly continues to monitor her wellbeing with checkups and takes a blood thinner. "It's preventative, just to make sure nothing happens," she explains.
While pregnant with Zayden, Kelly was advised by doctors to take a blood thinner administered via injection. "And that was probably the hardest part, honestly, of the pregnancy," she says. "I really loved being pregnant, but having to give myself a shot twice a day, I was like, 'Yeah, it's not really that fun.'"
Credit: Amanda Friedman
Upon entering motherhood, Kelly made the bulk of the songs on God Must Really Love Me inspired by the life change. "I was just so overwhelmed with inspiration. I've never felt anything like that before," she says.
Zayden is even featured on the album. "He's the first voice you hear and the last voice you hear," says Kelly, who even included audio of her son's birth on the tender track "Too Much" in order to capture the special "moment in time" forever.
For more on Tori Kelly, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere now.
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