Claire Foy is sharing her “dirty” experience with parasites after traveling abroad.
The Crown The actress, 41, revealed she stopped drinking caffeine “a few years ago” because she “got parasites” during an appearance on “Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware” podcast on Tuesday, February 3.
hosts jessie i Lennie Ware They were curious about Foy’s discovery of the parasite and whether he learned about it through a blood or stool test.
“Yeah, the gross stuff,” Foy divulged before being asked what kind of particular “issues” she experienced with her stomach.
“I kept losing weight and I didn’t know what was going on,” Foy explained of what made him suspect he was dealing with an infection. “I said, ‘I’m eating everything.’ I was really hungry.”
Foy believes he first had the parasite in Morocco and that it had been with him for “at least five years”.
“They travel as a couple. The doctor told me, gross, absolutely rank. It’s disgusting,” he continued.

Claire Foy
VALERIE MACON / AFPParasitic infections are “diseases or conditions caused by parasites that live and reproduce in your body” and “need another living thing (a host) to get the nutrients they need to survive,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. Symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, rashes, fatigue, and nausea.
Foy explained that she changed her eating habits to help fight the parasite.
“That’s why I gave up caffeine. I basically had to go on this diet, and because I didn’t want to take really harsh antibiotics and stuff, I took all these dirty little things, and part of that was giving up caffeine,” she shared. “Once you give it up, it’s such a big mission to give it up.”
Foy admitted that she used to drink “at least 15 cups of tea a day” and usually two coffees, so cutting caffeine out of her diet completely was a big adjustment.

Claire Foy
Aurore Marechal/Getty ImagesAccording to the Cleveland Clinic, parasitic infections can be transmitted through contaminated drinking water, undercooked or contaminated food, and insect bites. Some of the more common parasitic infections include malaria, toxoplasmosis, lice, giardiasis, and pinworms. People who are at higher risk of parasitic infections are young children and those with compromised immune systems. An estimated “3.5 billion people are affected and 450 million are sick” by intestinal parasitic infections worldwide, according to Frontiers in Parasitology, with most infections estimated to be in children.
Later in the podcast episode, Foy also shared that he suffers from an autoimmune disease.
“That’s my big secret, I feel like I’m in it The Traitors or something, and I let everyone know that I’m in a relationship,” she joked. “I don’t actually eat gluten or sugar except when I go out to dinner.”
Foy explained that she makes a few exceptions to her rule, such as enjoying dishes that include gluten and sugar at Christmas dinner, a non-negotiable, every year.
“It has no impact on me,” she said of restricting her diet. “It’s just because I have an autoimmune disease, so I should avoid anything that causes more inflammation.” (Foy did not specify which autoimmune disease he has.)


