Evangeline Lilly just dropped a brutally honest health update: she says she has brain damage and that almost every area of her brain is now functioning at a decreased capacity after a concussion last year. The diagnosis came after detailed brain scans following a freak fainting accident in Hawaii in 2025.
Evangeline Lilly Says She Has Brain Damage
In a New Year “concussion update” video posted on Instagram on January 2, 2026, Evangeline Lilly told fans that recent scans finally gave her clear answers about why she has been struggling cognitively. She explained that the tests showed “almost every area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity,” adding, “So I do have brain damage from the TBI, and possibly other factors going on.”
The Lost and Ant-Man star said she’s entering 2026 “with some bad news” about her concussion, but emphasized that at least now she knows what she’s dealing with instead of guessing. In the caption to her video, she wrote that it’s “comforting” to know her cognitive decline isn’t just perimenopause, even though the brain damage diagnosis makes the road ahead feel like an “uphill battle.”
Evangeline Lilly’s Concussion: How It Happened
Evangeline Lilly first revealed in May 2025 that she had suffered a traumatic brain injury after fainting on a beach in Hawaii. She said she blacked out, fell face-first into a boulder, and woke up with severe facial injuries, dental damage, and a concussion.
In a Substack post and matching Instagram photos at the time, she showed her bruised, cut face and explained that she’s had fainting spells since childhood, which doctors traced to hypoglycemia rather than epilepsy. Even then, she wrote that as shocking as the photos looked, she felt strangely grateful for the “reset” the blackout forced on her life.
What the actress Says About Living With Brain Damage
In her latest update, Evangeline Lilly doesn’t sugarcoat how serious things are, but she also keeps it weirdly grounded and hopeful. She says her job now is to “get to the bottom of that with doctors and then embark on the hard work of fixing it,” admitting she doesn’t look forward to it because she feels like “hard work is all I do,” then laughs at herself.
Lilly shared that her cognitive decline since she “smashed [her] face open” has actually forced her to slow down and gave her a more restful end to 2025 than she ever would have allowed herself otherwise. She closed her message by saying she feels “extraordinarily grateful” and “blessed” despite the diagnosis, thanking fans for always asking about her, caring, and sending prayers.
Acting And Stepping Back From Hollywood
Around the time she first went public about her concussion, Evangeline Lilly also quietly revealed she was stepping away from acting. She had already wrapped major Marvel work like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and used her injury updates to explain that her focus was shifting to healing, family, and a slower life rhythm.
Recent coverage notes that her brain damage diagnosis doesn’t change that trajectory—it just clarifies why she’s been feeling off, exhausted, and mentally slower. For now, she’s framing this chapter as a long, medically guided recovery process rather than a sudden public comeback story.
What Is Traumatic Brain Injury, According To Evangeline Lilly’s Case?
Outlets breaking down her story explain that a traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a disruption in normal brain function caused by a blow or jolt to the head, like Lilly’s impact with the boulder. Symptoms can include cognitive decline, memory issues, fatigue, headaches, mood changes, and concentration problems—many of which she hinted at when she talked about feeling slower and mentally “less sharp.”
Evangeline Lilly’s scans showing widespread decreased brain function underline how a “simple” concussion can have long-term consequences, especially months down the line. She’s now working with doctors to figure out how much of that decline can be reversed and what kind of treatment, rest, and lifestyle changes she’ll need going forward.
