Chad Kroeger: I can be open about Avril

Chad Kroeger is glad he doesn't have to "hide" from questions about Avril Lavigne's health anymore.

At the beginning of this month Avril revealed she was diagnosed with Lyme disease last year, which left her bedridden for months and forced her to cancel shows.

During this time her husband Chad, who she married in July 2013, was bombarded with queries about his wife's wellbeing from fans. Now everything is out in the open, the Nickelback frontman is "very thankful" that people have a better understanding.

"I'm like OK the wife has come out and said this and now I don't have to keep hiding... with everyone going, 'What's wrong with your wife, what's wrong with your wife,' and me just going, 'Ah she's gonna be fine,'" he explained to the Kyle & Jackie O show on Australian's KIIS FM radio station.

"I'm like 'OK, I can talk about this now.'"

It was Avril's request that Chad not discuss her illness during interviews, with the Canadian singer asking her spouse to keep quiet when quizzed on her heath.

Luckily the 30-year-old star is on the mend and Chad added that things are "looking up".

It was during an interview with People magazine that Avril spoke about what had kept her cooped up for so long. The disease was apparently contracted from a bite she got last spring time and it was during her birthday celebrations in Last Vegas last September that she realised something was seriously wrong.

"I could barely eat, and when we went to the pool, I had to leave and go lie in bed. My friends asked, 'What's wrong?' I didn't know," she recalled.

"I had no idea a bug bite could do this. I was bedridden for five months.

"I felt like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk and I couldn't move. I thought I was dying."