“I Can’t Do This Anymore” ‘Star Wars’ Icon Reveals Life-Threatening Medical Diagnosis

Star Wars icon Daisy Ridley has come forward in a new profile to reveal that she has been diagnosed with Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder with life-changing effects.

Daisy Ridley first came to global prominence in J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens (2015), the first in the Disney-produced Star Wars sequel trilogy. The British actress had been largely unknown before taking on the role of Jakku scavenger-turned-Jedi Rey Skywalker, which thrust her into the center of a franchise with a notoriously fickle and extremist fandom.

Ridley starred in both The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019), along with Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, and John Boyega, making her a pivotal part of the Mouse House’s attempt to reshape George Lucas’s creation in its own image.

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Since the trilogy concluded, Daisy Ridley has starred in a number of films with lower profiles than Star Wars (which is to say, nearly every other kind of film). This year, she has starred in the neo-noir Magpie and the Gertrude Ederle sports bio Young Woman and the Sea; of the latter, she spent a day swimming in the Black Sea, thinking, “I remember thinking, I can’t do this anymore.”

It turns out that Daisy Ridley actually has serious health considerations when it comes to intense physical roles.

In a new profile with Women’s Health, the actress revealed that she has been diagnosed with Graves’ disease, saying, “We all read the stats about women being undiagnosed or underdiagnosed and sort of coming to terms with saying, ‘I really, actually don’t feel good’ and not going, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine.’ It’s just normalized to not feel good.”

Women’s Health breaks down a number of Daisy Ridley’s physical ailments, stating:

Daisy is no stranger to doing hard things. Diagnosed with endometriosis (in which uterine-like tissue grows outside the uterus and often causes severe pain) in her teens, and polycystic ovaries in her 20s, she’s been candid about her health, on social media and in interviews. But now she’s dealing with another curveball: Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that involves overactivity of the thyroid.

Graves’ disease (per National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) “is an autoimmune disorder that can cause hyperthyroidism, or overactive thyroid.” It can have numerous serious physical symptoms, which include a rapid and irregular heartbeat, blood clots, stroke, heart failure, thinning bones, and osteoporosis (among others). There is no cure for the disease, which can only be monitored and treated as time goes on.

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Daisy Ridley is quick to acknowledge that, as a famous movie star, she has access to treatments that many others don’t. She says, “I do a fair amount of the holistic stuff, but I also understand that it is a privilege to be able to do those things.”

Hopefully, the actress is able to manage her diagnosis because she has signed up for a continuation of the Star Wars franchise that is likely going to keep her very active for the foreseeable future.

Since Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and the late Carrie Fisher have all moved on from the franchise, Daisy Ridley as Rey Skywalker has become the most prominent Star Wars film actor to return for an upcoming movie, generally referred to as New Jedi Order. She’s likely going to need to be in tip-top shape for Episode X, so we wish her all the best.

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