Actress Claire Foy, known for her acclaimed roles in “The Crown” and “A Very British Scandal,” is candidly sharing that she had stomach parasites for five years.
In a Tuesday, Feb. 3, episode of “Table Manners With Jessie and Lennie Ware” podcast, Foy revealed that she once suffered from stomach parasites, a condition she describes as both “gross” and eye-opening.
Foy Could’t Stop Losing Weight
“I kept losing weight and I didn’t know what was going on,” she recalled of the ordeal. Though she was losing weight, she never lost her appetite.
“I was just like, ‘I’m eating everything.’ I was so hungry,” Foy added.
Foy, 41, did not state exactly which parasite she had. However, she revealed, “They travel as a pair, I got told by the doctor. Gross, absolutely rank. It’s disgusting.”
She added that she believes that she picked up the parasite while in Morocco.
Hosts Jessie and Lennie Ware were intrigued by Foy’s health issue and wanted to know if she was diagnosed through a blood test or a stool test.
“Yeah, the gross stuff,” the actress simply responded.
Per the Cleveland Clinic, parasites are common and are “organisms that live in, on or with another organism (host).” It notes that the parasites will rarely kill the host, but carry diseases that can cause life threatening issues.
Symptoms may include vomiting, diarrhea, rashes, nausea, and fatigue.
Foy Gives Up Caffeine
In order to get rid of the parasites she had to start following a strict diet.
“That’s why I gave up caffeine. I basically had to go on this diet, and because I didn’t want to take really hardcore antibiotics and stuff like that, I took all this little gross stuff, and part of that was giving up caffeine,” she told the hosts. “Once you give it up, it’s such a mission to give it up.”
She said it was no easy feat as she was an avid caffeine consumer.
“I drank at least 15 cups of tea a day and then, like, I had my two coffees that I had staged,” she noted.
In addition to the revealing her prior health struggle, she told the two hosts that there is something else she doesn’t include in her diet.
“This is my big secret, I feel like I’m in ‘The Traitors’ or something, and I’m letting everyone know that I’m related to someone,” she said. “I don’t actually eat gluten or sugar except when I go out for dinner.”
