• Nesh Pillay, who struggles with short-term memory loss as documented in the Prime series, 50,000 First Dates: A True Story, shared her struggle with Drew Barrymore, who played a woman with the same disorder in the film 50 First Dates
• Pillay said it started with “a series of head bumps” until one day, she couldn’t remember that she had a daughter Sinead
• While “I cannot retain my memories, I can make memories,” Pillay said, adding that she’s “grateful” that she exists

Drew Barrymore — who famously played Lucy Whitmore, a woman with short-term memory in the 2004 comedy 50 First Dates — interviewed a woman with the real disorder who shared her life in the Prime documentary, 50,000 First Dates: A True Story.

“I always thought that it was an improbable sort of storyline. It turns out that maybe it isn’t,” Barrymore, whose character woke up every morning unable to recall the previous day, said when welcoming Nesh Pillay to the April 23 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show. 

Pillay, 35, told Barrymore, 50, that, from a young age, “I’ve had a series of head bumps.”

“My memory was just worse. Then, three years ago, I woke up from a nap, felt a little bit funny. By the end of that day, I started asking JJ [Jakope], my fiancé, questions like, ‘Where are we going?’ ‘What are we doing today?’ Just being confused. By the end of that day, we went to pick up my daughter, and I remember thinking, ‘No. I don’t know how to take care of a child. I don’t have a daughter.’ “

As she explains in the documentary, Pillay thought her fiancé was her Uber driver. She told Barrymore that, over the next few days “my memory regressed to the point that … [it] reset about once a minute.”

“My family took me to the doctor. At first, they were like, ‘This has to be related to her former brain injuries, but she should be fine in a couple of days.’ I wasn’t, so they took me to a different hospital. The assumption was, ‘Well, we don’t know what’s going on, so she must be faking.’ It was not until filming this docuseries, truly, that I was connected to the neuroscientist Morgan Barense … [that we] finally got some very real answers about what’s going on with my brain.”

As she explained, “The different centers of your brain are connected through neural pathways. Like highways almost. And a lot of mine are damaged. The other thing is brain atrophy. If you look at my brain, it’s a lot smaller. There’s a lot of empty space in there, which means that brain tissue is dead. We’re still kind of figuring out if it’s actively dying. There’s no answers. It’s very confusing. I spend a lot of time questioning reality. Like everything I perceive, I kind of go to my therapist and my parents and my journal to piece together what is real life.”

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She also shared that she and her fiancé separated when her memory was “resetting very often” — and sounded off on the imbalance that often occurs “when women’s stories are told.”

“It’s always really a man’s hero journey,” Pillay said. “It’s like a love story and, ‘Ugh this man stayed with her.’ “ But, she added, her documentary isn’t about romantic love. “It’s familial love. It’s sister love. It’s friend love. It’s self-love. And there are all of these other important types of love for women that we really need to be prioritizing. For me in this, I didn’t want the message to be: ‘And then they lived happily ever after.’ I’d rather create something real that connects with people than something pretty or perfect.”

She shared that while “I cannot retain my memories, I can make memories” — and that’s something she focuses on.

“I exist. I’m very grateful for that. For as long as I get to be alive and be present and everything I get to experience, I am endlessly grateful.”

Dave Portnoy is off the market! After the Barstool Sports founder confirmed that he’s dating Camryn D’Aloia, Page Six decided to slice into his dating history. Watch the full video to learn more about the ladies of his past.

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Just a few days before he took the stage at Coachella, Post Malone was served custody papers by his ex-fiancée.

According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, the “Circles” singer, 29, was served custody papers after his ex-fiancée, Hee Sung “Jamie” Park, hired a process server to track down Malone, born Austin Post.

The musician, who took the stage at Coachella Weekend Two on Sunday, April 20, was served on Friday, April 18 at 1:29 p.m. in a Los Angeles parking garage.

A rep for Malone did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

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On Wednesday, April 16, legal documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by PEOPLE revealed Malone’s ex-fiancée’s name for the first time as Park filed for custody of the couple’s 2½-year-old daughter.

In the filing, Park requested primary physical custody of her and the rapper’s daughter, who was referred to only by her initials — DDP.

According to the court document, Park is seeking joint legal custody and is willing to give Malone visitation rights.

In May 2022, Malone welcomed a daughter with his former fiancée, just weeks after he told PEOPLE they were expecting.

While he didn’t share an official birth announcement for his daughter, Malone revealed the news of his baby’s arrival on Howard Stern in June 2022.

Then in September 2023, Malone discussed his decision to maintain privacy when it came to his daughter and his former fiancée.

“I feel like a lot of people feel entitled to know every single detail of everyone’s life and it’s why I don’t want to post any pictures of my baby, because I want her to be able to make that decision whenever she wants to and is ready,” he told CR Fashion Book for the Muses issue.

However, in 2025, Malone and his ex appeared to have broken up when he was spotted out with a different woman in March.

At the time, TMZ shared a TikTok video captured by a fan who showed him at a bar sitting next to a woman who had been identified as Christy Lee. Malone and Lee have since been spotted in various locales in Rome and Paris.