The Crown star Claire Foy has said she had parasites for five years and that she no longer drinks caffeine as a result.
The award-winning actress, 41, is best known for portraying the late Queen Elizabeth II in the hit Netflix royal drama series.
Speaking on the podcast Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware, Foy said she thinks she caught the parasitic infection when she was in Morocco.
She said: “Quite a few years ago, I had parasites. Gross.
“I kept losing weight and I didn’t know what was going on.”
Foy said she had the condition for around five years, telling the podcast: “They travel as a pair. I got told by the doctor, gross, absolutely rank.
“It’s disgusting.”
The actress said she gave up caffeine as a result of the infection, saying: “I basically had to go on this diet and because I didn’t want to take really hardcore antibiotics and stuff like that, I took all this little gross stuff, and part of that was giving up caffeine.”
A parasite is an organism that lives on or in another organism, such as a human or a plant, and feeds from it.
According to the NHS website, there are different types of worms which can infect people – with some caught in the UK while others are only caught abroad.
Symptoms include a red, itchy worm-shaped rash, sickness or stomach aches for longer than two weeks and losing weight for no reason.
You can contract the infection by touching objects or surfaces with worm eggs on them, eating or drinking something with worm eggs in them, or eating raw or undercooked beef, pork or freshwater fish that contain baby worms.
All worm infections can be treated with prescribed medicine, according to the NHS website, with further infection prevented by washing hands regularly, especially before eating or preparing food, drinking bottled or boiled water in high-risk areas, deworming pet dogs and cats regularly and thoroughly washing garden-grown fruit and vegetables.
Foy said she no longer eats gluten or sugar to help manage an autoimmune condition she has, and avoids eating foods that could cause more inflammation.
She said: “This is my big secret, I feel like I’m in The Traitors or something, and I’m letting everyone know that I’m related to someone.
“I don’t actually eat gluten or sugar… except when I go out for dinner. It doesn’t have an impact on me. It’s just because I have an autoimmune condition, so I should avoid anything which causes more inflammation.”
Foy is also known for starring in the BBC historical drama Wolf Hall and A Very British Scandal.
Her role in The Crown landed the actress her biggest accolades to date, including two Emmy awards and a Golden Globe.
Foy also starred in 2022’s Women Talking, alongside Hamnet star Jessie Buckley, and the new biographical drama H Is For Hawk.
