Hollywood Medium's Tyler Henry Has Lived A Tragic Life

Tyler Henry first got a taste of the spotlight when he appeared on a 2015 episode of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." At the time, the soon-to-be-celebrated psychic medium connected the Kardashian sisters to their late dad, Robert Kardashian Sr., who passed away in 2003 and left them a huge fortune in his will. The following year, Henry's own show, "Hollywood Medium," premiered on E! and featured appearances by numerous celebrities, including former "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" star Nene Leakes and actor Jaime Pressly.

Since then, Henry's life has been marked by some hidden truths and, of course, ecstatic highs. He became a sought-after clairvoyant; the medium told The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts that he "had over 175,000 requests for private one-on-one readings" after the first season of "Hollywood Medium" aired. Henry authored two books and landed a show on Netflix, titled "Life After Death." The success of the series gave rise to another Netflix show, "Live from the Other Side with Tyler Henry."

Despite making such huge milestones at a young age — Henry was only 19 years old when "Hollywood Medium" premiered — the medium's life hasn't been without hardships. "I genuinely am a pretty happy person, despite having to navigate some really heavy lows," Henry revealed in an interview with Them. Over the years, Henry has endured heavy personal and professional setbacks, including struggles with his health, the loss of his loved ones, and public scrutiny. Buckle in as we take a closer look at some of the hurdles that have shaped the clairvoyant's path.

Tyler Henry has spent a lot of time helping families find closure over the years, but his own lineage also has a complicated history. The "Hollywood Medium" star was born and raised as an only child to Theresa and David Koelewyn, and growing up, he did not get the chance to know his maternal biological grandmother. Henry's mother, Theresa, was raised by a woman named Stella Guirdy Nestle, whom Henry thought was his grandmother for a long time. 

The details of Nestle's dark past unraveled on an episode of Henry's Netflix show "Life After Death," thanks to a DNA test taken at home by Theresa. Theresa and Nestle's genes weren't a match, a revelation that led Theresa to finally find out the truth about her childhood: Nestle allegedly took her from the hospital as an infant and falsified her birth records. Nestle was also a convicted felon and was accused of two murders. She raised Theresa alongside two siblings, both of whom the latter thought she was biologically related to.

Theresa eventually reconnected with her biological family as an adult, and it was a sentimental affair. "My feelings when I met with my biological family were actually bittersweet as well," she told "Today." "Because, while I loved them and adored them immediately — they're just wonderful, wonderful people — I also felt a loss, because I felt like, 'What if I had been able to be raised with them?'" Henry, on the other hand, was unable to make a connection with his maternal biological grandmother in the afterlife (she had since died). The medium described the experience as frustrating, especially since he wasn't used to being on the client's side.

Tyler Henry was raised in California's San Joaquin Valley, and from early on, it was clear that he was different from his peers. The psychic medium would use his abilities to reveal unknown facts about his fellow students, and although he had one of his high school teachers in his corner, he was still singled out by bullies. One particular incident stayed etched in Henry's mind, as he recounted in a conversation with Build.

"I remember going into a bathroom to wash my hands, and, during break, a group of kids came in," Henry recalled. "One was a bully that had bullied me quite heavily as a child growing up." Per the medium's narration, his aggressor was in the company of two fellow boys, and once they locked themselves in, he "knew that I was gonna get beat up." Henry's only line of defense turned out to be his psychic powers. "I said, 'Your aunt know that you were crying with your dad last night because of her death, and I saw a car accident,'" Henry continued, adding that the revelation scared the bully away.

As a grown-up, Henry has leveraged his popularity to speak out against bullying. In 2018, the television star partnered with STOMP Out Bullying and appeared in a video in which he narrated the story of Gabby, a high school student who suffered a fate similar to his. Gabby was picked on in her freshman year of high school, but she received much-needed support when her teacher launched an anti-bullying club with the help of some of her fellow students.

Tyler Henry lives as an openly gay man and has been married to his husband, Clint Godwin, since May 2025. The couple had been dating for close to a decade before they walked down the aisle, and during that period, Henry publicly showed support for the LGBTQ community. Case in point: When the Stephen Dunn-directed television series "Queer as Folk" premiered in June 2022, Henry, who attended its launch in the company of Godwin, took to Facebook to give the show a shoutout. "What a nice way to kick off Pride Month," Henry wrote in part. In a similar fashion, the "Hollywood Medium" star has made numerous readings during the course of his career, and his personal favorite happens to be a session with LGBTQ icon RuPaul. 

That said, Henry had a strong sense of self when he was growing up and was certain about his sexuality, but it took a while before his family fully accepted his orientation. "Coming out as a gay was just, for me, a process of many coming outs," Henry explained in an April 2024 interview (via "The Number with Darren Kennedy"). "I felt like it was kind of brushed out of the closet. Like, I'm getting slapped back in." The television star revealed that many opinions were thrown in his direction, including the insinuation that he may have been going through a phase. "It was a lot of, you know, kind of having to repeat."

Tyler Henry has been in heavy demand over the years — in December 2023, it was revealed that he had an astounding 600,000 people on his waitlist — and there isn't a shadow of doubt that the accuracy of his readings has something to do with his popularity. The medium has made some spot-on predictions in the past, including the late actor Alan Thicke's heart complications (Thicke died from a ruptured aorta in 2016), the birth of Jenna Bush Hager's son, and the arrival of Brie Garcia's daughter, Birdie Joe Danielson, after a long struggle with conception.

Henry is great at his job, but it's not always a walk in the park. "It's physically, emotionally, and mentally draining, but the benefit is seeing the impact it makes," the television star remarked in a conversation with Your Teen. The emotionally intense aspects often tend to go both ways. Case in point: former "Today" host Hoda Kotb's eyes shimmered with tears during a reading associated with her late father, while Henry himself once got choked up ahead of a session with Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi's family.

Through the years, Henry has learned to pay attention to his soundness. "You know, it's the same as it's always been. Just one day at a time, [putting] one foot in front of the other," he told Collider when asked about his well-being. It also helps that Henry takes time off. "Though I'm always picking up little pieces of information, I disconnect as much as I can," he shared in his chat with Your Teen. 

Tyler Henry has worked with a wide range of clients over the years, and like all of us, he's had bad days on the job. One of his most challenging reads was a session with one-time Grammy winner Boy George. Early on, the musician expressed that he found connecting to people in the afterlife strange. The pair struggled to be in sync, and George appeared to be holding back. It took the heated intervention of George's manager, Paul Kemsley, for the singer to loosen up (Paul is known for once being married to "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Dorit Kemsley).

At the end of the session, the "Karma Chameleon" singer admitted to being skeptical about Henry at first, but he'd had a change of heart. Despite the unpleasant experience, Henry was cognizant of the fact that he wouldn't always have clients who believe in his work. "What I found going into these readings was that every client had a different degree of comfort level. And some people were an open book, and others had the makeup on, kind of the war paint. And they didn't want to kind of go further," he explained in a chat with Fox News. "Eventually, we were able to connect on a more human level. But it was very disarming for us both, I think, in hindsight." 

Henry's reading with "I Got the Boy" singer Jana Kramer also turned out to be a challenging session. The medium found it hard to connect with Kramer's late relatives, even though he did deliver the good news that she would be a mother of two (At the time of writing, Kramer is a mother of three.) Henry linked Kramer's friend to her late mother instead, and upon conclusion, termed the session "the most draining reading I've ever done in my entire life" (via E!).

Tyler Henry made a name for himself connecting people to their late loved ones, but he's not exempt from personal losses. In February 2018, Henry mourned the demise of his publicist, Ron Scott. "Last night I got the news that my manager and longtime friend Ron Scott made his transition early Saturday morning," the medium wrote on Facebook. The television star proceeded to narrate how he and Scott met at a talent search, and the latter committed to helping him grow his brand. "6 years later, both our lives had changed so much in ways neither of us saw coming," Henry continued. He further remembered Scott as a compassionate person with whom he had a ton of great laughter.

Scott was 74 years old at the time of his passing and reportedly lost his life to complications related to pneumonia. The publicist had an impressive decades-long career, which included the representation of the likes of "The Hunting Wives" actor John Stamos and "Dynasty" sensation Joan Collins. Scott also famously worked with the cast of "The Bold and the Beautiful" in the late '80s. He was part of the team that helped the soapie get worldwide recognition; the CBS show holds a Guinness World Record for being the most-watched daytime TV soap opera, with millions of viewers across multiple continents. 

Tyler Henry and his husband, Clint Godwin, had a pet dog named Mindi, whom they publicly adored. Mindi had her own designated Instagram account through which Henry's fans followed her life closely. Sometimes the brilliant white furry poodle was seen taking a peaceful nap under a shade, and other times, she was pictured relaxing on a neatly mowed green lawn at the park. Henry also once shared an adorable photo of Mindi having a soothing morning stretch.

Unfortunately, the joy Mindi brought into the medium's life only lasted for three years. In October 2020, Henry announced that Mindi had died. "Today I sadly said goodbye to my baby Mindi," he captioned a series of pictures of some of their best memories (via Instagram). "Though we only had 3 years together, I'll remember every run on the beach, every sleepy morning kiss, and her passionate love for peanut butter and tummy rubs."

Henry's community was equally saddened by Mindi's demise and extended their sympathies to his family, but it didn't take long before the medium introduced his audience to another pet. In November 2020, Henry shared an adorable picture of Nanci, a brown poodle who was "already fitting in right at home" (via Instagram). Four years later, a lovely chihuahua named Kitty joined the family.

Tyler Henry's readings have earned him a massive fanbase, but he's also attracted a ton of critics, some of whom wanted to prove that his show, "Hollywood Medium," was fake. In the past, one observer voiced that much of Henry's work was rooted in extensive pre-show research. The same critic also pointed out that, during one of Henry's live shows, he happened to draw from a strategically placed monitor that only faced his direction.

Some people believe that Henry's show of empathy toward his clients is all part of an act, while others think that he is more entrepreneurial than he lets on. Henry has also been accused of digging for information from clients. It doesn't help that some of the medium's predictions have gone wrong. Case in point: When he had a reading with "The Kardashians" star, Khloé Kardashian, Henry failed to foresee the looming problems in Kardashian's relationship with Tristan Thompson. At the time, he suggested that the relationship would only be affected by distance, but after the news of Thompson's cheating scandal broke, Henry claimed that he had anticipated the couple's issues.

Similarly, Henry implied that he wasn't worried about Donald Trump winning the presidency in 2016, and, of course, that didn't hold up. Nevertheless, the medium is not fazed by those who do not believe in his authenticity and chooses to recognize skepticism as a justifiable human trait. "I think it's important to have a healthy degree of skepticism. I myself am a very skeptical person," he told Out. 

Tyler Henry's readings often connect people to the afterlife, and therefore, he is no stranger to paranormal experiences. In fact, one of Henry's "most profound paranormal experiences," as shared in a May 2022 post on Facebook, was the prediction of the death of his grandmother when he was just 10 years old. The mystical experience was pivotal because it marked the first time Henry's mother, Theresa Koelewyn, learned of his gift as a psychic.

Nonetheless, some paranormal occurrences are scarier than others, even for someone who has supernatural abilities. One of Henry's most spine-chilling experiences happened in his teens. "I was lying in bed one day and I heard my mom come into the room," The medium recalled on the "Howie Mandel Does Stuff" podcast. "My head was into the pillow, and I was kind of faking being asleep. And she came in, and I started feeling this hand run through my hair. And I thought, 'Oh! My mum's giving a scalp massage.'"

According to Henry, the movement "started getting a little tight," as his nose was being forced slowly into the pillow. "When I went to go lift my head out of surprise, I got fully pushed into the pillow," Henry continued, adding that he ultimately found himself struggling to breathe. A restless Henry wriggled and attempted to yell until his mom came to his rescue. Henry realized that his mom wasn't his aggressor, but he still didn't discover who was.

Tyler Henry has had several health issues over the years, some of which began when he was an infant. Henry was born with a cyst in his brain that saw him have four surgeries, the first of which he had shortly after he turned 18. In a post shared on Instagram in 2023, the medium disclosed that he had to go under the knife after weeks of enduring headaches. "A mass I was born with was only now causing a life-threatening situation as my adult life was just beginning," Henry wrote.

In 2020, Henry was set to go on stage when he suffered from a collapsed lung. The clairvoyant ended up in the hospital for several months. On the Netflix show "Life After Death with Tyler Henry," the medium's then-boyfriend, Clint Godwin, termed the health mishap a near-death experience. "I suspect that I had COVID very early on and that might have been why my lung collapsed in the first place," Henry told Metrosource.

Henry's health struggles have unfortunately continued to affect his work. In January 2025, he was set to embark on a multi-state tour, featuring appearances in states like Nevada, Oregon, and Ohio. In May 2025, Henry was scheduled to appear in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Scottsdale, Arizona, but he revealed that he'd had another brain surgery. "I'll be on bedrest for a month and look forward to getting back to doing readings," he wrote (via Instagram). Similarly, Henry was set to have shows in California in December 2025, which he reportedly canceled.