Gal Gadot Recalls Being Diagnosed with ‘Massive’ Blood Clot During Pregnancy: ‘Is This How It Feels Before You Die?’

Gal Gadot reflected on the “massive” blood clot that threatened her life when she was 8 months pregnant with her fourth child.

While receiving the Hollywood Icon Award from the Women’s Guild Cedars-Sinai in honor of the work she’s done to raise awareness about women’s health, the Wonder Woman alum, 40, told attendees from the prestigious California hospital that “I am here tonight because of you.” 

She shared that, while pregnant with her fourth child in February of 2024, “I started to feel the kind of headache that makes the world stop. For three weeks, I tried to push through because that's what we do.” It wasn’t until her mother called her from Israel and demanded she get an MRI that Gadot underwent testing to find out the source of her pain.

“Before we even got back home, my phone rang and my doctor said, ‘You need to come to the hospital right now. It's serious. You have a massive brain clot,’ ” the Snow White star said. “All I could think was, ‘Am I gonna die? Is this how it feels before you die? Are they going to be able to save me? Is the baby gonna be okay?' ”

Gadot said that her husband, Jaron Varsano, “drove like he was in Fast and Furious straight to Cedars-Sinai” where they met with a medical team, who told her, “We need to get the baby out.”

“Within three hours, [the baby] was out and something special happened — because fear met with faith and science and soul worked together,” she shared, explaining that her daughter Ori’s name in Hebrew means “my light.”

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“My light came to life, was born,” she said. “The next morning while my husband held our tiny newborn, my incredible doctors performed the procedure that saved my life. And when I woke up, I realized that I had been given two gifts. One in my arms, Ori. And one in my heart — a second chance. Cedars-Sinai, you gave me that chance.”

“It's so good to be alive,” Gadot, who shares three other daughters — Alma, 14, Maya, 8, Daniella, 4 — with her husband, told the attendees. 

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Gadot first shared the news of her surgery last December, posting a photo to Instagram of herself in the hospital bed holding Ori. “It’s vital to listen to our bodies and trust what it’s telling us. Pain, discomfort, or even subtle changes often carry deeper meaning, and being attuned to your body can be life saving,” she wrote. 

She reiterated that message when sharing that she’d been awarded the Hollywood Icon Award, writing, “listen to your body. Don’t ignore the signs, don’t postpone check-ups, and don’t feel guilty about putting your health first.”

She empasized that even though she was the one receiving the award, “the real heroes were the ones not on a stage. They are the people working in hospitals, in emergency rooms — the doctors, nurses, technicians, and medical teams who devote their lives to saving others, day after day, hour after hour. The award truly belongs to them.”