Emilia Clarke opens up about suffering brain aneurysms during early GOT days

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

I don't know about you, but I can't imagine HBO's GAME OF THRONES without Emilia Clarke's commanding presense as Daenerys Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea,Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons. The fair-haired fire-walker has been a fan-favorite character of the series from the very beginning, though in a new essay from The New Yorker, Clarke reveals that she almost didn't make it to the end of the show's grand finale.

Her troubles began in February 2011, shortly after wrapping the high fantasy epic's first season. While working out with her personal trainer, Clake recalls, “I immediately felt as though an elastic band were squeezing my brain.” A sudden and violent bout of nausea soon followed, leaving Clarke fearful of being overcome with a sickness she could not possibly comprehend. “To keep my memory alive, I tried to recall, among other things, some lines from Game of Thrones.”

Following the confusion, Clarke was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was diagnosed with 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,” says Clarke. At just 24 years old, Clarke was ushered into an operating room for brain surgery, though it would not be the last time that she was admitted for brain-related complications.

Following her hospital stay and recovery, Clarke returned to the set of Game of Thrones, where filming for the show's second season was poised to begin. As Clarke tells it, doing PR for that chapter of the saga was nothing short of a horror show: “If I am truly being honest, every minute of every day I thought I was going to die.”

With little choice but to keep tabs on her condition, Clarke returned to the hospital for monitoring, and in 2013, discovered that a massive growth had formed and needed immediate treatment. And so, Clarke went under the knife again, though this time the procedure had failed, forcing the SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY actor to be prepped for invasive brain surgery once more. This procedure was deemed far more intense, based on the need to open her skull in an attempt to fix the problem.

“The recovery was even more painful than it had been after the first surgery,” Clarke writes. “I looked as though I had been through a war more gruesome than any that Daenerys experienced. I emerged from the operation with a drain coming out of my head. Bits of my skull had been replaced by titanium. These days, you can’t see the scar that curves from my scalp to my ear, but I didn’t know at first that it wouldn’t be visible. And there was, above all, the constant worry about cognitive or sensory losses. Would it be concentration? Memory? Peripheral vision? Now I tell people that what it robbed me of is good taste in men. But, of course, none of this seemed remotely funny at the time.”

Thankfully, Clarke is now fully-recovered from the ordeal, and the experience appears to have taught her much about monitoring her own health. As someone who has undergone two open heart surgeries, and nearly died of an internal bleed some two years ago, I cannot stress enough how important it is to remain in touch with your own body and visit your doctor for regular appointments.

“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,” says Clarke about the experience.

I think I speak for everyone here at JoBlo – as well as Ms. Clarkes countless fans – when I say that we're happy to hear that not only did she survive, but that she's using her celebrity to raise awareness for people who suffer from brain related injuries and strokes. If you're interested in helping those who've encountered such afflictions, or simply want to educate yourself about the dangers of brain-related ailments, you can visit SameYou for more information.