Emilia Clarke felt like she "cheated death" after surviving two brain aneurysms.

The 39-year-old actress suffered aneurysms in 2011 and 2013, and Emilia has admitted to feeling haunted by the near-death experiences for a number of years.

The brunette beauty - who is best known for playing Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones between 2011 and 2019 - told Variety: "For a number of years, I felt that I had cheated death, and it was coming to get me. I truly felt like I had done something wrong, and I shouldn't be here.

"I also thought it ruined my ability to act -- which some people might agree with!"

Emilia starred in Game of Thrones alongside the likes of Sean Bean, Richard Madden, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Kit Harington and Rose Leslie.

The TV show proved to be a worldwide hit, but Emilia has denied earning a reported salary of $300,000 per episode.

Reacting to the speculated numbers, Emilia said: "We didn't earn that much. Can you imagine? I'd have been driving a couple of Porsches!"

Emilia also confessed to struggling to cope with her own fame and success.

She said: "I spent a lot of time trying to understand it. And then you realise it's just a formula: The less you're on TV, the less famous you are. It comes and it goes."

Meanwhile, Emilia previously sent her thanks to Britain's National Health Service (NHS) workers who "saved [her] life" after she suffered a brain haemorrhage.

The London-born star wrote an open letter to the NHS to mark the institution's 72nd anniversary, thanking the staff who made sure she was never "truly alone".

In the lengthy message, she wrote: "The memories I will hold dearest, though, are ones that fill me with awe: of the nurses and doctors I knew by name when, in the weeks after my first brain haemorrhage, we watched the passing of time and the passing of patients in the Victor Horsley Ward at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Queen Square, London.

"The nurse who suggested - after everyone else in A and E struggled to find an answer when I was first admitted - that maybe, just maybe I should have a brain scan. She saved my life."