Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke says she wanted to die after multiple brain aneurysms.
She's opened up about the long-term effect they had on her, including fearing she would never be able to act again.
It left the Mother of Dragons at her most vulnerable - in hospital, depressed and deeply paranoid after a major brain aneurysm.
She describes the aneurysm as feeling like "pressure."
"An enormous amount of pressure just suddenly. Then very, very quickly I realised I couldn't stand, I couldn't walk - and in that moment I knew I was being brain-damaged."
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She'd suffered what's known as a haemorrhagic stroke, also known as bleeding on the brain.
Incredibly she caught the first one in time to not only get it fixed, but return to set in time for season two of Game of Thrones.
She plays Daenerys Targaryen, commanding an air force of dragons.
But during shooting, there was another swollen blood vessel lurking in her head. Two years after the first one burst, she was back in the hospital with another brain bleed.
In an interview with CBS's Sunday Morning, she said that this one almost killed her.
"There was a bit of my brain that actually died. If a part of your brain doesn't get blood to it for a minute then it will no longer work. It's like you short circuit."
She says the experience has changed her.
"I had a deep paranoia from the first one as well. I was like what if something has short circuited in my brain and I can't act anymore - I mean literally it's been my reason for living for a very long time."
After making a full recovery, she's started a charity for brain injury survivors called Same You.
"I really, really, really am going to put my heart, soul, and back into transforming after-care for brain injury recovery, and also bringing awareness to the invisible disease that is brain injury."
An admirable legacy, fitting of the character she's made iconic.
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