Marvel actress Evangeline Lilly has revealed that she’s suffering from brain damage after fainting and hitting her head on a boulder last year—a frightening accident that left her with lasting cognitive challenges but a surprisingly optimistic outlook.
In a heartfelt Instagram video posted to her 3.5 million followers, the 46-year-old Ant-Man and the Wasp star opened up about what she called her “bad news,” confirming that medical scans have shown clear signs of traumatic brain injury (TBI).
“It’s comforting to know my cognitive decline isn’t just peri-menopause,” Lilly wrote in her caption, “but discomforting to know what an uphill battle it will be to try to reverse the deficiencies.”
Lilly explained that she fell face-first into a rock after fainting while on a beach in May 2025. The impact left her bloodied and bruised, as shown in a photo she shared on her Substack account. Doctors later discovered that multiple regions of her brain weren’t fully functioning, leading to her current diagnosis.
“So I do have brain damage from the TBI,” she told fans in the video. “Now my job is to get to the bottom of that with doctors and 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.”
Despite the serious nature of her condition, the Lost alum remains strikingly calm and hopeful. She said that the ordeal has, in a strange way, forced her to slow down and “have a more restful finish” to 2025.
On Substack, Lilly also recounted the frightening moments after the fall. Paramedics, she said, were more concerned about her sudden blackout than her visible injuries, performing a series of tests that all came back normal. Lilly explained that she has fainted periodically since childhood—episodes that terrify her longtime partner, Norman Kali, who is also the father of her two children.
“My partner says that when I black out, I look like I die,” she shared. “He gets very afraid. My eyes roll back in my head, and all life leaves my body.”
For now, the Canadian actress is taking a step back from Hollywood to focus on her health and family. Her last major project was Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in 2023, where she reprised her role as Hope van Dyne—the Wasp.
Though facing a long recovery ahead, Lilly told fans she’s determined to heal and keep moving forward, ending her post with a message of gratitude: “I’m slowing down—but I’m still here.”
