Exploring Emilia Clarke's brain injuries due to aneurysm as Game of Thrones star gets an MBE for charity

Emilia Clarke, the English actress, was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Order of the Empire) on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, alongside her mother, Jenny, as co-founders of SameYou, a brain injury recovery charity.

The 37-year-old established the foundation after surviving two life-threatening brain aneurysms in 2011 and 2013, as per BBC. If an aneurysm leaks or ruptures, it causes a hemorrhagic stroke or bleeding in the brain.

Emilia sustained a subarachnoid hemorrhage in 2011, which is when an aneurysm happens in the area between the brain and the thin tissue covering the brain, as per Brain and Life magazine.

The injuries were amid her rise to fame as HBO’s Game of Thrones star.

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Emilia Clarke's brain aneurysms explored as the Game of Thrones star and her mother receive MBEs

Emilia Clarke and her mother, Jenny Clarke, were awarded the Member of the British Order of the Empire for their services to people with brain injuries. Their organization, SameYou, was founded in 2019 after the actress's survival from her brain aneurysms in 2011 and 2013.

According to Variety, the charity focuses on rehabilitating patients after they leave the hospital. The foundation was established after Emilia Clarke was alarmed by seeing how understaffed rehabilitation facilities were. They were helping patients recover from brain injuries with barely minimum skilled practitioners.

She also wanted to express her gratitude for luckily being a part of "the minority" of survivors of the medical events with “no repercussions.” Emilia Clarke has titanium plates on parts of her skull after surgery to remediate damage, as per The Independent.

Prince William bestowed the MBE insignia to Emilia and Jenny Clarke in the ceremony. The mother had also sustained a brain bleed in the past, according to BBC. During the interview at the event, the actress expressed that the most challenging aspect of her illness was being discharged from the hospital and realizing she was on her own. She said,

"You spend a month in hospital, every day they tell you you’re going to die,” Clarke said. And then you go home, and you have to live with that. I found that incredibly difficult, and my family found it incredibly difficult.

Emelia Clarke also spoke about the “magical nature” of the honors ceremony at Windsor Castle and quipped that she thought Jenny would ask Prince William to be on the board of trustees. She added her thoughts after discharging, saying,

"You are so taken care of, and so supported, and then you are let out into the world. And it seems terrifying, and you feel like you are ill-equipped to be a normal person again because you have just been told that you are going to die every three seconds."

In 2019, Emilia Clarke revealed her brain injuries by writing a personal essay in the New Yorker. The actress said she could not speak or even remember her name at the time. She also told BBC in a 2022 interview that,

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

As per Vanity Fair, Emilia Clarke confirmed she will lead in An Ideal Wife, a movie about Oscar Wilde’s spouse, Constance Lloyd. The plot details are still being kept under wraps, and the release date has not been confirmed yet.