Emilia Clarke recently revealed that she suffered from two aneurysms while shooting for Game of Thrones.
The actor kept her health private for the past eight years but now has decided to come out with her story. She opened up about her condition and her struggle on the sets of the hit show.
Clarke reveals that the first diagnosis took place during the first season of GoT and it was “was quick and ominous.”
“A subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a life-threatening type of stroke, caused by bleeding into the space surrounding the brain. I’d had an aneurysm, an arterial rupture.”
She had to go into surgery immediately in order to survive. While the surgery was a success, the side effects were a lot to deal with for Clarke, including pain and trouble with memory and cognitive responses.
“I am an actor; I need to remember my lines. Now I couldn’t recall my name… I was suffering from a condition called aphasia, a consequence of the trauma my brain had suffered.”
This would also not be the last time she’d go into surgery.
After season 3 Emilia’s regular brain scans found a growth on the other side of her brain, big in size and actively growing.
Says Clarke, “I had a massive bleed and the doctors made it plain that my chances of surviving were precarious if they didn’t operate again. This time they needed to access my brain in the old-fashioned way—through my skull. And the operation had to happen immediately.”
Clarke reveals she had given up hope and was convinced she would not make it.
“But I survived… In the years since my second surgery I have healed beyond my most unreasonable hopes. I am now at a hundred per cent.”
She adds, “There is something gratifying, and beyond lucky, about coming to the end of Thrones. I’m so happy to be here to see the end of this story and the beginning of whatever comes next.”
