--- title: Chelsea Clinton Didn't Know Hillary Clinton Had Pneumonia description: In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Chelsea Clinton explains how even she didn't know about her mother's sickness. canonical: https://time.com/4511341/chelsea-hillary-clinton-pneumonia/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-28T18:04:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:28.263Z og:title: Not Even Chelsea Clinton Knew Her Mom Had Pneumonia og:description: 'I think she just expected she would power through it’ og:url: https://time.com/4511341/chelsea-hillary-clinton-pneumonia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc80fc35ae2f1d9f9/6988a7f7cd1bba286070282d/chelsea-hillary-clinton-pneumonia.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The 2016 Democratic National Convention og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Not Even Chelsea Clinton Knew Her Mom Had Pneumonia twitter:description: 'I think she just expected she would power through it’ twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc80fc35ae2f1d9f9/6988a7f7cd1bba286070282d/chelsea-hillary-clinton-pneumonia.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Not Even Chelsea Clinton Knew Her Mom Had Pneumonia by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Sep 28, 2016 6:04 PM UTC  Hillary Clinton, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, right, waves on stage with her daughter Chelsea Clinton during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., on Thursday, July 28, 2016\. Division among Democrats has been overcome through speeches from two presidents, another first lady and a vice-president, who raised the stakes for their candidate by warning that her opponent posed an unprecedented threat to American diplomacy. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images Hillary Clinton, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, right, waves on stage with her daughter Chelsea Clinton during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., on Thursday, July 28, 2016\. Division among Democrats has been overcome through speeches from two presidents, another first lady and a vice-president, who raised the stakes for their candidate by warning that her opponent posed an unprecedented threat to American diplomacy. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesDavid Paul Morris—Bloomberg /Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Sep 28, 2016 6:04 PM UTC Democratic presidential nominee [Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4509103/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-preparation/) faces trust issues with many voters, and her [pneumonia diagnosis](http://time.com/4493918/hillary-clinton-pneumonia-records/) was no exception. In an [interview](http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a3880605/chelsea-clinton-reaction-first-presidential-debate/) with _Cosmopolitan,_ [Chelsea Clinton](http://motto.time.com/4485049/chelsea-clinton-says-she-trusts-hillary-clinton-more-than-anyone-else/) explains how even she didn’t know about her mother’s sickness and why her mom’s decision not to tell her “wasn’t a conscious choice.” Chelsea rationalized Hillary’s secrecy about her [pneumonia](http://motto.time.com/4490104/hillary-clinton-pneumonia/) and why she thinks her mom didn’t want to tell anyone about it: “I mean, she didn’t even tell me. I think she just expected she would power through it as she has always powered through everything.” Talk about stamina. Chelsea’s apartment became Hillary’s refuge after she became dehydrated at a September 11 memorial ceremony. But that still didn’t mean Chelsea knew about it. She [tells](http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a3880605/chelsea-clinton-reaction-first-presidential-debate/) _Cosmo_, “Well, I didn’t know that she had pneumonia. I didn’t know she had pneumonia until she came over to my apartment.” Chelsea later applauded her mother’s health: “She certainly looks healthier at her age than I feel at 36 at this moment.” [_Follow Motto on Facebook_](https://www.facebook.com/mottoworkplaylive/)_._ Even though Hillary Clinton faced backlash for not announcing her pneumonia earlier, Chelsea explained that her family is used to facing perpetual criticism. When asked about [Donald Trump](http://motto.time.com/4509433/debate-donald-trump-interrupted-hillary-clinton/)‘s comments on not mentioning her father’s infidelity in respect to her, she said, “My reaction to that is just what my reaction has been kind of every time Trump has gone after my mom or my family, which is that it’s a distraction from his inability to talk about what’s actually at stake in this election.” She continued, “I don’t remember a time in my life when my parents and my family weren’t being attacked, and so it just sort of seems to be in that tradition, unfortunately.” Read the rest of Chelsea Clinton’s interview with _Cosmopolitan_ [here](http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a3880605/chelsea-clinton-reaction-first-presidential-debate/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4511341/chelsea-hillary-clinton-pneumonia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4511341/chelsea-hillary-clinton-pneumonia/"},"headline":"Not Even Chelsea Clinton Knew Her Mom Had Pneumonia","datePublished":"2016-09-28T18:04:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:28.263Z","description":"'I think she just expected she would power through it’","url":"https://time.com/4511341/chelsea-hillary-clinton-pneumonia/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc80fc35ae2f1d9f9/6988a7f7cd1bba286070282d/chelsea-hillary-clinton-pneumonia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc80fc35ae2f1d9f9/6988a7f7cd1bba286070282d/chelsea-hillary-clinton-pneumonia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The 2016 Democratic National Convention","caption":"The 2016 Democratic National Convention","creditText":"David Paul Morris—Bloomberg /Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4511341/chelsea-hillary-clinton-pneumonia/","name":"Not Even Chelsea Clinton Knew Her Mom Had Pneumonia"}}]}] ```