
















:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Nesh-Pillay-real-life-50-first-dates-042325-tout-3ec7b97a5e6b43e4ae50c532c79c7a52.jpg)
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.”
Amazon MGM Studios
“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.”
CBS/pillay.nesh/Instagram
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
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.”

Nick Reiner’s request to gain access to his $1.5 million trust to cover his court fees and commissary items has been blocked by trustees.
The financial steward claimed in court docs filed this week that California’s “slayer statute” prevents Nick — who has been charged with murdering his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner — from inheriting the money.
Per Justia Law, the statute prevents a “person who feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent” from gaining access to “property, interest, or benefit under a will of the decedent, or a trust created by or for the benefit of the decedent.”
“California has enacted no exception permitting a killer’s inheritance to be used for criminal defense costs,” Lauriann Wright, a lawyer for the professional fiduciary, Jodi Pais Montgomery, wrote in the docs obtained by the New York Times.
Wright also wrote that under the “slayer statute,” Nick’s portion of his trust fund would be transferred to his sister and brother, Romy and Jake Reiner.
She noted that although Nick is presumed innocent pending the murder trial, releasing the funds to him now would be “irreversible.”
In a statement to the Times, Nick’s lawyer, Anita P. Wu, rejected the claim that the law applies.
“The slayer statute requires a determination, not a mere accusation,” she said. “Nick is presumed innocent and has been convicted of nothing.”
In June, Nick, 32, demanded access to his $1.5 million trust fund to help him cover his legal fees as he fights the murder charges.
The “Being Charlie” writer stated in a petition that he was supposed to be paid half of his trust when he turned 30 in 2023 and the other half when he turns 35 in 2028.
Because the trust is “irrevocable,” Nick — who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia — claimed in the petition that the trustee is not sanctioned to withhold funds from a beneficiary, even if they are deemed incompetent.
Rob and Michele were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood, California, home last December. The filmmaker was 78 and the photographer was 70.
The “All in the Family” actor and Michele’s death certificates stated they died within “minutes” of receiving “multiple sharp force injuries” with a “knife, by another.”
Their youngest son, Nick, was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths.
In February, the screenwriter pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Nick is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
If you or someone you care about is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Selena Gomez’s lawyer didn’t mince words in his response to the lawsuit against the singer and her mother, Mandy Teefey, regarding their mental health company, Wondermind.
“The allegations that Selena Gomez engaged in any way whatsoever in any purported ‘fraud’ or other wrongdoing are completely meritless, both factually and legally,” Gomez’s attorney in the case, Mathew S. Rosengart, said Saturday in a statement to Page Six.
Rosengart vowed to “vigorously defend these false allegations” and stated they “indeed are filing a motion to dismiss the baseless claims” against the pop star.
Gomez, Teefey and their former business partner, Daniella Pierson, were sued Thursday for allegedly duping Wondermind investors, according to court documents obtained by Page Six. The company itself was also named a defendant in the case.
Two other companies — Wondermind SRS 44 LLC and Bespoke Wondermind LLC — filed the lawsuit in federal court in Delaware, claiming they invested $1.2 million into Wondermind in September 2022 but the defendants “falsely represented” details about the company.
They claim they were misled to believe that Wondermind “had the infrastructure, leadership, and resources necessary for the company to launch into a profitable, one-of-its-kind mental health and wellness platform.”
The “Hands to Myself” singer, 34, was accused in the lawsuit of “ignoring” her purported contractual obligation to “actively build the company as its head of marketing” using her star power.
“The partnerships did not exist. The initiatives never materialized. The app was never built,” the companies alleged in the suit, adding that Wondermind “quietly collapsed” for three years with Gomez, Teefey and Pierson accused of hiding the harsh reality from investors.
Investors claimed in court docs they didn’t find out about the company’s struggles until the Cut published an article in September 2025 claiming it was in “utter financial and operational disarray.”
Months prior, Wondermind laid off 60% of its 15-person staff after employees claimed they hadn’t been paid in weeks, Forbes reported in May 2025.
According to the outlet, the company owed tens of thousands of dollars to freelancers and vendors, with a Wondermind spokesperson blaming “growing pains” at the time.
Elsewhere in the Cut’s story were allegations of Teefey’s “long-running substance abuse problem,” which were blamed for having “significantly impeded her capacity” to run Wondermind.
Teefey denied the claims at the time in a statement to TMZ, saying, “It’s unfortunate that a few disgruntled employees with an ax to grind can spread lies about me and distort the truth. Even more disappointing that the media is willing to amplify their lies.”
Investors also claimed in the lawsuit that Teefey, 50, tried to blame Pierson for Wondermind’s downfall when they approached her. (Pierson was ousted from the company in January 2023 after “an internal dispute” with Teefey.)
Additionally, the docs pointed to Gomez and Teefey’s supposedly strained relationship, accusing the Rare Beauty founder of actively distancing herself from the company due to “several undisclosed personal disputes” with Teefey.
They blamed the mother-daughter duo for knowing their issues made their joint involvement in Wondermind “impractical.”
Investors also took issue with Wondermind allegedly using a slew of A-list names in pitch materials to indicate momentum, claiming those plans never materialized.
According to the lawsuit, investors were suing for security fraud and seeking the return of their investments in Wondermind, as well as damages, costs and attorney’s fees via a jury trial.
Overland couple killed in Guatemala after being deported by ICE
Interstellar Travel: the Birth of Fusion Drives
Scientist Constructs “Big Picture” of Mars Water from Rover Data
Murder trial set for driver accused of killing 4 Pepperdine students
JWST Could Spot Volcanic “Exo-Ios” Around Super-Jupiters
‘Baywatch’ star Brooks Nader is red hot for summer and more star snaps
Family pushes for answers after 3 people found dead in Rocky Mount home days after electricity cut :: WRAL.com
Sex is legal once a year in lame rom-com