GAME OF THRONES STAR SHARES REAL-LIFE BATTLES: At her lowest moment, Game Of Thrones star Emilia Clarke asked medical staff "to let me die". She revealed her ordeal in an essay published on Thursday about two nearly fatal brain aneurysms in the early years of filming the hit series (2011 to present).

The actress - who plays Daenerys Targaryen in the hit show, about to enter its final season - wrote that the first aneurysm rupture struck while she was at a gym in 2011, just after filming the first season.

"At some level, I knew what was happening - my brain was damaged," the 32-year-old wrote in The New Yorker magazine. "For a few moments, I tried to will away the pain and the nausea.

"To keep my memory alive, I tried to recall, among other things, some lines from Game Of Thrones."

She was rushed to hospital. She was 24 at the time of the first surgery. The recovery period, in which she could not recall her name, gave her "a sense of doom".

"In my worst moments, I wanted to pull the plug. I asked the medical staff to let me die," she said.

She left the hospital one month after, but doctors found she had a second aneurysm that could rupture at any moment.

"Even before we began filming Season 2, I was deeply unsure of myself. I was often so woozy, so weak, that I thought I was going to die."

During a brain scan, doctors found her growth had doubled in size and decided to operate - a seemingly simple procedure that resulted in major complications and another month in the hospital.

Today, Clarke says she has "healed beyond my most unreasonable hopes" and helped develop a charity to offer treatment to those recovering from stroke and brain injuries.