Overview
- Clarke, 39, revisited her 2011 and 2013 brain aneurysms on How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, released Wednesday, saying she shut down emotionally and believed she had cheated death.
- The first hemorrhage struck after Season 1 as she planked at a London gym, leading to emergency surgery and the discovery of a second, smaller aneurysm.
- In 2013, doctors found the second aneurysm had grown, a procedure went wrong, and surgeons reopened her skull, with Clarke later saying parts of her brain are missing and titanium replaced sections of her skull.
- She returned to work soon after, recalling she did press at San Diego Comic-Con while fearing a new bleed, and said every headache for years felt like a warning.
- Clarke first disclosed her ordeal in a 2019 New Yorker essay and now supports brain injury recovery through her SameYou charity, highlighting how invisible damage can leave survivors isolated and anxious.