Evangeline Lilly says brain functions at "decreased capacity" after traumatic head injury

The Lost star fainted and hit her face on a rock at the beach in May 2025.

By Drew Gillis  |  January 5, 2026 | 12:21pm
Photo by Jun Sato/WireImage
News News Evangeline Lilly
Evangeline Lilly says brain functions at

In 2025, Lost and Marvel actor Evangeline Lilly suffered a concussion in May 2025 after fainting on the beach and hitting her head on the rock. To kick off 2026, the actor shared that the traumatic brain injury has left her with long-term damage. “It’s late on January 1, the first day of 2026. I’m entering into this new year, the Year of the Horse, with some bad news about my concussion,” Lilly shared in an Instagram video posted a few days ago. “A lot of you asked how I’m doing, a lot of you have inquired about the brain scans that you heard I got. And the results came back from the scans, and almost every area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity. So I do have brain damage from the TBI, and possibly other factors going on.”

“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. But that’s okay,” Lilly continued. “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. 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. Feeling extraordinarily grateful and blessed to be able to play one more day, one more year on this beautiful living planet and that is my concussion update.” 

Lilly first shared her experience passing out at the beach on May 30 with a Substack essay titled “I Fainted At The Beach.” The actor wrote that she has experienced fainting spells for much of her life, and while at one point they were attributed to hypoglycemia, Lilly says various tests of her blood sugar have not confirmed the diagnosis.

Keep scrolling for more great stories from The A.V. Club.
 
Join the discussion...
SELECT permalink, ID FROM `pm_article_index` where`article_category` like '%|news|%' and ID<>1859206667 AND article_type like '%|news|%' ORDER BY post_date DESC LIMIT 7;