Evangeline Lilly has shared a health update revealing brain damage following a concussion she suffered after fainting and hitting her head.
Evangeline Lilly has shared a serious health update, revealing that she has brain damage following a concussion she suffered earlier this year after fainting and hitting her head on a boulder.
The 46 year old actor, known for roles in Lost, The Hobbit films and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, posted a video to Instagram explaining that recent brain scans showed widespread impairment. Lilly fainted in May while at the beach, falling face first into a rock and sustaining what doctors later diagnosed as a traumatic brain injury.
Lilly began by saying she wanted to share “some bad news about my concussion.” In the video, she told followers that the scan results were confronting. “Almost every area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity,” she said. “So I do have brain damage from the TBI and possibly other factors going on.”
Lilly explained that while the diagnosis is difficult to process, she is now focused on understanding the full scope of the injury and working with doctors on recovery. “But now my job is to get to the bottom of that with doctors and then embark on the hard work of fixing it, which I don’t look forward to because I feel like hard work is all I do,” she said. “But that’s okay.”
The Lost actress said the experience did have a silver lining, though. “My cognitive decline since I smashed my face open has helped me to slow down and helped me to have a more restful finish to my 2025,” she said. “I think this was the calmest, most restful Christmas holiday I have had maybe since I had children, so 14 years ago. So that’s a good thing.”
Evangeline Lilly ended the video by sharing that she felt “extraordinarily grateful and blessed to be able to play one more day and one more year on this beautiful living planet.”
In the caption of the post, she wrote: “Verdict’s in…I do have brain damage from my tbi. Comforting to know my cognitive decline isn’t just peri-menopause, discomforting to know what an uphill battle it will be to try to reverse the deficiencies. Thank you all for always asking, for always caring, and for your continued prayers.”
Support quickly rolled in from fans and fellow actors. Marvel co star Michelle Pfeiffer commented, “You are a warrior. Nothing – not even this will defeat you my friend.”
Lilly has been open about the incident since it happened, previously sharing photos of her bloodied face and recounting the fall in a Substack post. “I pull my face from the sand and take a breath. My mouth and nose are full of blood,” she wrote. She also explained that fainting spells have affected her since childhood, something doctors once believed was linked to hypoglycaemia before ruling that out.
Despite the severity of the injury, Lilly expressed gratitude for the forced reset. “It might seem crazy looking at my face and my busted tooth, but I feel so grateful that I blacked out. I needed the reset,” she wrote at the time.
Lilly has been on an acting hiatus for the past three years, with her most recent role being Hope van Dyne in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in 2023. In June, she told Variety that she was “not actively pursuing any work in the industry” and is currently focusing on humanitarian efforts and writing.
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