‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Actor Experienced Heart Attack Symptoms From Toxic Caterpillars, Friend Says

“50 Shades of Grey” actor Jamie Dornan was hospitalized last year after coming in contact with a toxic caterpillar, according to his friend.

Gordon Smart appeared on the BBC podcast “The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected” and recalled the incident, which he said occurred after visiting a golf course in Portugal. Smart said he and Dornan thought they were just experiencing hangover symptoms after spending the previous night consuming alcohol, but later discovered it was something more serious.

Smart said he began feeling a “tingling in his left hand and tickling in his left arm” which he feared at first could be the sign of an impending heart attack.

“Now, I’m a fairly healthy guy but once you start thinking you’re having a heart attack, you’re pretty sure that you’re convincing yourself that you are having one,” Smart said. The Scottish journalist explained how he went to the hospital before Dornan did, but when he returned the actor was experiencing the same symptoms and was then taken to the hospital as well, per Entertainment Tonight.

“Jamie said, ‘Dear me. Gordon, about 20 minutes after you left, my left arm went numb, my left leg went numb, my right leg went numb, and I found myself in the back of an ambulance,'” Smart told the podcast hosts. “Anyway, as he left the hospital, the paramedics asked them for a selfie, which is really what you want when you’re being wheeled out of a hospital room.”

Smart said the doctor told him the next week that his and Dornan’s symptoms could be the result of coming in contact with the Pine processionary caterpillar (Thaumetopoea pityocampa), which has toxic proteins and, as Smart said, “have been killing people’s dogs and giving men in their 40s heart attacks,” the New York Post reported.  

“It turns out we’d brushed up against hairy processionary caterpillars and have been very lucky to come out of that one alive,” Smart added. “The good news is it wasn’t a caffeine overdose, it wasn’t a hangover — it was a poisonous, toxic caterpillar.”

Dornan began his career as a model in 2001. He starred as the male lead, Christian Grey, in the popular “50 Shades” franchise between 2015 and 2018, and has been in several other notable TV and film projects. Dornan is the recipient of two Irish Film and Television Awards and has been nominated for a BAFTA Television Award and a Golden Globe Award. He currently stars in the TV drama series “The Tourist.”