Maggie smith: star looked 'frightening' suffering from graves' disease

feature-image

Play all audios:

Loading...

Dame Maggie was 33 and working on a show called “Lettice” when some severe symptoms of the condition dawned on her. She had a version of the disease known as Graves’ ophthalmopathy – which


affects roughly one third of sufferers of Graves’ disease. In a New York Times interview, she revealed her eyes became irritated and protruded with puffiness around them, which she said


looked "absolutely frightening". Talking about the onset of the condition, which followed a cycling injury that broke her arm, she said: “It's been kind of like a fog of


despair, really.