So, what sort of mental health issue would be obsession with celebrities/attention?

My old best friend is an entertainer. A highly popular pianist who had a huge following in his career. People adore him. I've known him for forty years now, although we have lived on different coasts for almost thirty. His wife was my friend, our kids played together.

Thirty years ago, a woman latched on to him. His friends knew her background -- she had broken up a marriage of another musician whose life had then become so distraught that his chronic illness exacerbated and he died. She kept a condo near where musicians worked and gathered, for them to come all hours for drinks and food. When the one she had been after died, she started inserting herself into my friend's marriage. Gifts for his children, babysitting, she had ways of always being there.

The woman is obsessed with celebrity. From the musicians she chased and stalked, she caught this one, my friend. He was married, and she inserted herself. For thirty years now, she has used his talent and his celebrity to call attention to herself and hopes constantly to garner attention from people like Oprah -- high profile. She likes to make videos of herself singing and him accompanying her to send happy birthday greetings to celebs.

They lived in Hollywood for a while, where she was constantly trying to get on game shows, and be in audiences, etc. Then they went to New York, to be close to the studios and the action there. A youtube channel, with herself featured and him accompanying her.

A year ago, he became really ill, and was in hospital and then rehab for 150 days. She has been pimping a story to media about how they both caught Covid and was so sick in a coma, but one day she ran into a prominent doctor and had a discussion, and the doctor told her that if HE indicated he wanted to fight the illness, doctor would help him. So, she says, she went to the bedside and told HIM that if would wiggle his toe, she would tell the doctor to fight. She says he did wiggle his toe.

With that story, she has gotten news coverage from NY television, and any other source who she could contact. Portraying herself as brave. But now the latest TV news story says that he did not have Covid. That he had open heart surgery and was very ill following. The Covid is called a "misdiagnosis". But just two weeks ago she posted on FB about how they both had Covid.

She's been the gatekeeper between him and his old friends. She took over his FB and twitter when he became ill. (Gee, I hate the fact that she has surely read the years of conversation I had with him on FB PM)

I know there's some sort of grotesque mental health issue here. But what is it that drives someone to obsession with celebrity to the point that they use/abuse others to gain it? Is it narcissism? Some sort of lack in self-esteem?

All his old friends can do is support him the best we can. But it's very, very weird to watch her pimp him in this way. Now using his illness/recovery for attention to herself.