Daisy Ridley. Credit: Our Movie Guide/Wikimedia Commons

Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley has opened up about her battle with Graves’ disease, an autoimmune condition most common in women.

Ridley, who lives with endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, said she doesn’t know if her conditions are associated but said her Graves’ was diagnosed after having experienced fatigue, hot flashes, racing heart, weight loss and hand tremors. "It was funny, I was like, 'Oh, I just thought I was annoyed at the world,' but it turns out everything is functioning so quickly, you can't chill out," Ridley told Women’s Health.

Ridley rose to fame as Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy films The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). In one of her recent projects, Young Woman and the Sea (2024), she plays American Olympian Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel.

In the US, rapper and singer-songwriter Missy Elliott and former broadcaster and writer Wendy Williams have spoken out about living with Graves’ disease, a consequence of the overproduction of thyroid hormones (hyperthyroidism). According to the Mayo Clinic, about 25% of people with Graves' show some signs and symptoms of thyroid eye disease. Symptoms include bulging eyes, a gritty sensation, pressure or pain, puffy or retracted eyelids, redness or inflammation, light sensitivity, double vision and vision loss.