Georgie Henley, an actress best known for playing the character Lucy Pevensie in three films in the Chronicles of Narnia franchise, has opened up about a terrifying health struggle she went through ten years ago.
Henley wrote a lengthy post on Twitter which was attached to a photo showing the scars from her ordeal. She revealed that the infection was called necrotizing fasciitis, which she said nearly killed her and also almost resulted in the amputation of her left hand and arm.
She said she managed to avoid amputation due to “grueling invasive surgery, and later extensive reconstructive surgery which resulted in a series of skin grafts and scars.”
Henley said that while she was open about the situation to close friends, she always hid the scars “in a professional context.” She explained her reasoning for this soon after. “The industry I am part of often focuses on a very narrow idea of what is deemed aesthetic ‘perfection’ and I worried that my scars would prevent me from getting work.”
The actor also mentioned that beginning to act as a child made it even more difficult to shake the toxic expectations she had for herself, which she described as “the same of feeling different, exacerbated by the expectations that came with beginning my career at a young age.”
She would have only been 10 years old when she started performing as Lucy in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
