Hollywood actress Florence Pugh has opened up about the heartbreaking moment when doctors told her parents she ‘wasn’t supposed to live’.
The Midsommar and Oppenheimer actress, 29, battled serious health issues as a child and revealed them to Canadian TV host Antoni Porowski.
Queer Eye’s Antoni hosts No Taste Like Home – a brand new series on National Geographic that combines celebrities, cooking, and stories of family history.
Florence is a guest on the first episode, set for release later this month, with her family history starting Oxford before taking her to Yorkshire and Greater London.
During her premiere appearance, it’s revealed to Florence that her great-great-great-grandparents gave birth to a daughter also named Florence Pugh.
However, Antoni then told the actress that the daughter named Florence had died at just four years old after contracting what is likely to have been tuberculosis.
‘Because of the air quality and the pollution here, quality of life was really tough. Little Florence, unfortunately just shy of her fifth birthday, passed away. Most probably from tuberculosis.’
Florence then informed Antoni that she had her own troubles with breathing when she was a little girl, with her parents given a bleak outlook by doctors.
‘Okay, so this is also just very strange – because I had many struggles growing up with my breathing and constantly being ill and going in and out of hospital.’
She continued: ‘I wasn’t supposed to live. When I was born they told my parents that it wasn’t going to happen and just enjoy your time while you have it.’
Florence revealed in 2022 that her family upped sticks and moved to Spain because doctors advised her that a ‘hotter climate’ would help her condition.
The Lady Macbeth star was eventually diagnosed with asthma and a breathing condition named tracheomalacia, which causes a person’s trachea to narrow.
She said, according to Yahoo: ‘We were in Spain because I have a breathing issue, and when I was younger they kind of just advised that a hotter climate would be better.
‘I have asthma and I have this thing called tracheomalacia as well. And so from a young age, I’ve just had a different breathing system.’
Tracheomalacia can appear in newborn babies when the trachea (windpipe) doesn’t develop properly, leading to breathing complications.
The problems associated with breathing can go away over time, but patients can be stuck with a lingering cough, other respiratory illnesses, and a croaky voice.
Florence says it doesn’t trouble her as much these days: ‘Now as an adult, unless I get ill, it doesn’t really affect me as intensely as it did when I was younger.’
She explained that she spent a large portion of the Covid pandemic in Los Angeles due to its warmer climate, saying she has to remain vigilant of new illnesses and diseases that affect the respiratory system.
Speaking to Sue Perkins in 2020, she added: ‘When I was a kid, I was always ill. But now that I’m older, I don’t get ill. But when I do, it’s the same intensity as it was when I was always ill.’
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