Emilia Clarke says she's missing parts of her brain after aneurysms: 'It's remarkable that I am able to speak'

Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke is grateful to still be able to communicate after surviving multiple life-threatening brain aneurysms.

Clarke spoke with BBC One's Sunday Morning after revealing in 2019 that she suffered two brain aneurysms during her time on the hit HBO show.

"The amount of my brain that is no longer usable — it's remarkable that I am able to speak, sometimes articulartly, and live my life completely normally with absolutely no repercussions," she said. "I am in the really, really, really small minority of people who can survive that."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In March 2019, Clarke penned a New Yorker essay revealing that after the first season of Game of Thrones, she suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a "life-threatening type of stroke," and later learned that "about a third of SAH patients die immediately or soon thereafter." She then also "had a smaller aneurysm on the other side of my brain" and was told "it could 'pop' at any time."

Speaking with Sunday Morning, Clarke said she has seen scans of her brain, and "there's quite a bit missing." Despite this, the Daenerys Targaryen actress noted that she not only has no issues speaking but can also easily remember lines for her role on stage in The Seagull.

Clarke in 2019 launched a charity called SameYou, which works to "develop better recovery treatment for survivors of brain injury and stroke," according to its website. "I know that I am hardly unique, hardly alone," she previously wrote in the New Yorker. "Countless people have suffered far worse, and with nothing like the care I was so lucky to receive."