Emilia Clarke shares new details about her brain hemorrhage and recovery

Emilia Clarke has opened up about the emotional trauma she experienced after surviving two life-threatening brain hemorrhages while filming Game of Thrones.

Speaking on the How To Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast, the actress revealed that after suffering her second brain hemorrhage, she became convinced she was “meant to die.”

“I was just convinced that I had cheated death and I was meant to die,” Clarke said. “Every day, that’s all I could think about.”

Clarke, who portrayed Daenerys Targaryen on the hit HBO fantasy drama from 2011 to 2019, first experienced a brain hemorrhage shortly after completing the show’s debut season. The actress recalled collapsing during a workout at a London gym after struggling with the overwhelming pressure that came with sudden fame and career changes.

“The closest thing to describe it is imagine an elastic band just snapping around your brain,” she said. “This insane pressure.”

The actress recalled crawling to the bathroom and vomiting from the pain before realizing something was seriously wrong.

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According to Emilia Clarke, doctors initially failed to recognize the seriousness of her condition because of her age. She was later transferred to a specialist hospital after a nurse recommended a brain scan, which revealed the hemorrhage.

At the time, Clarke said she was primarily focused on recovering quickly enough to continue filming Game of Thrones and feared producers might see her as weak.

Emilia Clarke later suffered a second aneurysm while living in New York and performing in a Broadway production. Doctors had been monitoring the condition through regular scans following her first hemorrhage, but complications during surgery led to an emergency brain operation.