'Game of Thrones' Star Addresses Health Scare Recovery in Moving Speech
Who's your favorite actress from Game of Thrones?
Emilia Clarke was Emmy-nominated four times for her work on the groundbreaking series and was just honored at Variety's Power of Women London, presented by Lifetime. The English actress, 39, gave a moving speech that addressed surviving two brain hemorrhages in her 20s.
Clarke and her mother founded the SameYou charity in 2019, which is why she publicly revealed what she had been through.
"When I finally shared my story in 2019, we were overwhelmed by the response," she said at the London event, per Variety. "Mostly young people reached out to tell us their own stories. Today we have tens of thousands of survivors in our community saying essentially the same thing: the journey to healing feels like falling off the edge of a cliff without anyone there to catch you."
The Me Before You star also weaved in some humor during her moving speech.
"I was 22 when I suffered my first brain hemorrhage, 24 when I had my second," she said. "I was also 22 when I filmed the first season of Game of Thrones, and 24 when I made my Broadway debut. Id like to blame my brain hemorrhage for the bad reviews but it happened after we closed, early..."
In her recent cover story interview with Variety, meanwhile, Clarke opened up about a number of other things, particularly her past Emmy races. Despite being nominated four times for her performance as Daenerys Targaryen between 2011 and 2019, she never took home an award.
"I'm embarrassed to admit that not winning an Emmy was a really significant thing," she told the magazine about her first Lead Actress nomination in 2019.
"Everyone's over Game of Thrones now - you're old news," the 39-year-old admitted about how the moment made her feel. She skipped all the afterparties and went straight home that night. The next day, Clarke vowed never to "behave that way again."
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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 6:21 AM.