Kit Harington had a frightening brush with death as a child.
The face of Game Of Thrones could have been very different had a guardian angel not been watching over a four-year-old Kit.
The actor was ‘seconds away from death’ as a child when he got into difficulties in a swimming pool.
Recalling the horrifying incident, Kit revealed: ‘Once, I nearly drowned in a swimming pool. When I was four. I was seconds away from death, apparently.’
The 31-year-old, who married Rose Leslie earlier this summer, didn’t elaborate on how it happened or he came to be saved, but thankfully someone must have been on hand to drag him to safety.
Kit is now starring in new play True West alongside Johnny Flynn, which features a whole lot of sibling rivalry.
He told the Sunday Times Culture magazine: ‘My older brother will find this play hilarious, because he used to kick the shit out of me.
‘We’re very, very close, but we fought when we were younger. There’s something in this play that appeals to that side of me and my brother’s relationship, way back when. We were quite competitive.
‘I won’t tell you what my brother used to do to me, because it was horrible…
‘Actually, my brother attributes my whole career to the fact that I learnt to play at crying early on, being a little shit. He didn’t actually have to beat the crap out of me to get into trouble.’
After years of starring as Jon Snow on Game of Thrones, Kit is delighted to be returning to the stage.
He said: ‘I’ve just worked in television for nine years.
‘There is always an appeal to doing theatre for me. There never won’t be.
‘[Johnny and I] were saying over lunch how we were both taken to the theatre constantly as kids. It really is bred into you as an English actor, this love.’
Kit previously confessed that he had another brush with death when he filmed the movie Spooks and a stunt went wrong.
Speaking to The Sun, he explained that in a scene where his character went through a wall, he was almost left seriously injured, with directors worrying that they might have offed their main star.
He said: ‘I wasn’t meant to go through that wall. That was a mistake. It worked brilliantly on film but it hurt like hell. If you slow it right down you can see me lose consciousness for a second.’
He’s rapidly using up his nine lives.
Kit recently revealed that some fans are in for disappointment when the hit HBO show finally comes to an end.
‘I think a TV series that’s spanned eight, nine years is an incredibly difficult thing to end,’ he told MTV News.
‘I think not everyone’s going to be happy, you know, and you can’t please everyone.’
Co-star Sophie Turner recently revealed the final page of the script, and agreed with Kit that not everyone will be satisfied.
‘I think, you know, as an actor it was really satisfying – I think for everyone, everyone’s storylines – to be able to act out the way that it all ends. It was really satisfying for us,’ Turner told IGN.
‘Who knows if it will be satisfying for the fans. I think a lot of fans will be disappointed and a lot of fans will be over the moon, I think.’
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