Evangeline Lilly: Lost, Hobbit star reveals brain damage after falling head-first onto beach boulder

Evangeline Lilly has revealed a devastating health battle after she suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Lilly, known for playing Kate Austen in the hit TV series Lost, took to Instagram to share the difficult news.

“Verdict’s in...I do have brain damage from my tbi,” she captioned a video on Instagram.

“Comforting to know my cognitive decline isn’t just peri-menopause, discomforting to know what an uphill battle it will be to try to reverse the deficiencies.”

The star sustained a concussion after she fainted at a beach and fell onto a boulder head first in May 2025.

After medical investigation, including brain scans, Lilly was found to be functioning with decreased capacity.

“A lot of you have asked how I’m doing, a lot of you have inquired about the brain scans you heard I got and the results came back from the scans and almost area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity,” she said.

“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 the 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.”

Lilly shared the immediate aftermath of the fall with her followers on Instagram at the time. A photo and video show her bloodied face.

“I fainted at the beach. And fell face first into a boulder,” she wrote on Instagram

“At the hospital, the nurses and doctor went straight into action, more determined to find the cause of my blackout than to stitch up the hole punctured into my face by the rock. I smiled wryly at them. ‘You won’t find anything,’ I said with a woozy voice...”

About a week after this she let her fans know that her healing had been going well.

“My healing has been nothing shy of miraculous. Thank you all for enquiring about how I’m doing,” she wrote on Instagram.

Sadly, Lilly’s health took a turn shortly afterwards while she was in Hawaii.

The star told her followers that her concussion took a “downturn” after a weekend of doing “too much manual labour out in the punishing Hawaii heat”.

A few weeks later Lilly said she was seeing a brain specialist and undergoing dental surgery at her last stop in Honolulu.

Months went by and fans continued to ask how the Marvel star was doing since the accident, but it wasn’t until the new year that their questions were answered.

Many have been sharing messages of support on social media.

“Praying for you a super speedy recovery. Wishing you all things pleasant and better health in this New Year. Take care,” one Instagram user wrote.

“You’ll always be Kate! A bad ass warrior who keeps pushing forward despite the challenge,” another commented.

Lilly thanked her fans in the announcement post for their ongoing kindness.

“Thank you all for always asking, for always caring, and for your continued prayers,” she wrote.

Lilly, who has taken time off acting, is also known for her children’s book series The Squickerwonkers.