Erin Moriarty Finds Hope Again After Graves Diagnosis

Erin Moriarty says The Boys’ penultimate season 5 episode “The Frenchman, the Female, and the Man Called Mother’s Milk” became a turning point for both her character and herself—because she began filming with treatment for Graves’ disease. In the same week she

The first time Erin Moriarty felt like she could act without fighting her own body, it happened mid-production—inside a superhero storyline that had been asking Annie January/Starlight one cruel question after another: what do you do when you lose hope?

The penultimate episode of The Boys’ fifth season. “The Frenchman. the Female. and the Man Called Mother’s Milk. ” landed with that emotional weight in a way Moriarty didn’t have to explain. She said episode 7 was filmed almost exactly a year ago. and it was the first shoot to take place after her diagnosis with Graves’ disease—an autoimmune condition causing hyperthyroidism. She described treatment as the turning point that changed how she felt while working. She said episode 7 was the first episode she started filming while she started treatment. and that episode 8 was the only one she shot when she was only a few weeks into treatment. when she was “really feeling like myself again.”.

“Everything changed for me,” Moriarty said. She explained that she felt like herself again, and that she enjoyed acting because she was no longer uncomfortable—“literally, in my skin.”

Moriarty, 31, has played Annie January/Starlight since 2019, when the character began season 1. Her character starts with idealism. joins the Seven—the satirized version of the Justice League inside The Boys’ world—and runs headfirst into a corporation that uses violence as branding. In that world. superheroes called “supes” are often “mostly jerks.” These supes are created by Vought International through the supe-making serum Compound V. At the head of the Seven is Homelander (Antony Starr). a narcissistic version of Captain America with whom Annie comes into conflict after she rebels against Vought’s “company values.”.

As Annie grows more disillusioned, she leaves the Seven in season 3, episode 6. Moriarty has described that breakaway as the first time her character reclaims agency—striking out to help her boyfriend Hughie (Jack Quaid) and his gang of rebels led by Billy Butcher. played by Karl Urban. The resistance movement takes shape, and anti-Homelander supporters dub themselves “Starlighters.”.

By the time the show reaches season 5, episode 7, the stakes are brutal. Moriarty said that during the peak of the Starlighter movement. Annie nearly loses her will to fight after learning that Homelander has received a vital dose of V1. a compound that grants the user immortality. from his father. Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). For Annie and her fellow rebels. Moriarty said it’s a crushing blow because they had already spent most of the season trying to craft a supe-killing virus.

“[Episode 7] is where she finds herself again after really struggling all season,” Moriarty said. She described it as the episode where Annie regains hope—something the plot has been stripping away.

That revival is threaded through one key exchange from the episode. where Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair)—a character from The Boys spinoff series Gen V—throws an old line back at Annie. Moriarty said the line dates back to Annie’s season 1 audition tape. when she told the audience. “Since when did hopeful and naive become the same thing?” In season 5. Annie orders Marie and Jordan Li (London Thor) to stand down and save themselves after a year of recon. and Marie retorts. “Was that just some line you said to get that gig?”.

Moriarty called the moment “a really interesting moment for [Annie].” She said that when people are reminded abruptly of who they used to be versus who they’ve become. it can galvanize them into wanting to recover that earlier version of themselves. “ [Marie’s comment] galvanizes her, I think, into finding her hope again,” she said.

Moriarty said filming season 5 brought that same kind of confrontation into her own life.

While she was still on set. she began to feel hopeless as she dealt with symptoms she described as debilitating fatigue. nausea. weight loss. brain fog. and numbness in her feet. among other issues. She said that in a previous Instagram Story she shared that “Not long after filming [season 5. episode 4]. I started losing the ability to walk.”.

Those physical changes came after a period of online scrutiny about her appearance. even before her eventual diagnosis with Graves’ disease. In 2024. Moriarty said she declared in a now-deleted Instagram post that she was taking a break from Instagram after political commentator Megyn Kelly speculated on her podcast that Moriarty had undergone plastic surgery. Moriarty said she called out that segment in the same Instagram post. She also said she returned about a month later. thanking fans for their continuous support. while still dealing with symptoms behind the scenes.

Even with what she was feeling, Moriarty initially kept pushing forward—convincing herself the worst of it was just fatigue. She stayed committed to Annie’s arc as the series approached its final season. Moriarty said her “sole request” to The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke was that Annie would have the chance to meet her father. She explained that Kripke often received requests from actors about character beats. so she didn’t bring up her own request until she felt it had “gravity.”.

Moriarty said the final season felt like the right time, and that she argued, “The show can’t end without [Starlight] meeting [her] father.” Kripke agreed.

In her telling, Annie’s meeting with her father isn’t a cure—it’s an anchor. Her father, Rick January (Tim Daly), doesn’t fix everything, Moriarty said, but he provides the first dose of strength from outside Annie’s core group.

Moriarty tied that to an important emotional beat: Rick unveils the truth and reminds Annie that “the bravest thing that we can all do is to maintain hope, especially when the circumstances around us are hopeless.” She said that moment is integral to Annie’s return to herself.

Hope builds again in episode 7 when Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso)—a friend and fellow member of The Boys—helps spur Annie back into action during an attempt to infiltrate Vought Studios. Moriarty said Mother’s Milk recounts a time when he nearly gave in to despair. until he managed to rescue an injured pigeon and nurse it back to health. He tells Annie that it isn’t worth losing the will to fight if there’s one life that can be saved.

Moriarty said Annie takes that lesson to heart. She described the bond between Annie and Mother’s Milk as something people don’t always name. even though they talk a lot about Hughie and Annie as the moral compasses. She said Mother’s Milk deserves an “honorable mention” because he’s always trying to do the right thing. She added that there’s an unspoken bond between Mother’s Milk and Annie that she and Laz Alonso often talk about. because he has a way of seeing what Annie needs that many characters don’t.

Before Moriarty could see hope return in Annie’s story, she was still stuck inside her own symptoms. But another moment of life imitating art arrived: Moriarty said one of her castmates helped her the way Mother’s Milk helps Starlight.

She recalled a C.S. Lewis quote she “really” loves—“A friend is someone who sings your song when you forget it”—and said filming earlier episodes of season 5 provided the real-life version of it. Moriarty said Jack Quaid saw her. She said he knew she “wasn’t [figuratively] there anymore. ” and that he spoke up because that’s who he is—because he sensed something was wrong. She said Quaid told her, “I’m worried about you. You need to go see a doctor.”.

Moriarty said she might not have sought professional help if Quaid hadn’t voiced his concerns. She also said she already had a chronic condition, and that she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease in May 2025, prior to filming the penultimate episode.

Even now, she said she struggles to speak up about her diagnosis because she worries it will feel self-centered. But she said openness has helped her feel less alone—especially after she told MISRYOUM’s reporter about her own experience. She referenced Hashimoto’s disease. an autoimmune disorder that causes hypothyroidism. described as the opposite of Graves’. and noted how conditions like hers can “impact your cognitive ability to form linear thoughts. to be present and to be capable of making decisions.” She summarized it as “like a system-wide failure.”.

The reporter’s account in the interview echoed what Moriarty said she needed to hear. She said Quaid’s warning pushed her to demand to see a doctor the next day, and to go through the journey to get the proper diagnosis because he remembered her “song” when she forgot it.

After the diagnosis, Moriarty said she found strength in telling her story. She linked that decision to a moment from the penultimate episode. where Annie watches a Vought production featuring a caricature version of Starlight. Annie wonders what the point is of fighting for the truth if half the country will believe that fictionalized version of her is real.

Moriarty said she discovered the truth matters even in the context of her own life—and that she found fortitude in protecting her life from outside voices. She said. “As I grew up. my dad always taught me to try and embody the concept that the most self-defeating thing we can do is let others define us.” She continued that people can criticize her as much as they want. but they aren’t with her day in and day out. She said she has been subject to a lot of scrutinization. and that “That’s okay. ” because she’s come out the other side conditioned into protecting herself in a bubble.

She also drew parallels between her and Annie. Both went from relative anonymity to worldwide fame quickly. Moriarty said getting cast on a show like The Boys becomes the thing that puts you “on the map,” and that navigating it perfectly is impossible.

She said going to therapy and taking accountability daily can help someone in the public eye. but she said comment sections written anonymously provide no benefit for self-betterment because people don’t know who she is behind closed doors—with friends. with family. or as a human being. “The most valuable currency I have is who I am,” she said.

Moriarty believes Starlight takes a similar path. She said Starlight wants to do everything right. has to learn that perfection can be the enemy of good. and that letting go led to being at peace with herself. Moriarty connected that to her own experience, describing it as the way she earned her own peace.

In the episode’s final movement. Annie makes peace in an unexpected way: she chooses to protect a room full of Homelander supporters known as “Hometeamers” from being ripped apart by two Vought lackeys. Dogknott (Zach McGowan) and Sheline (Emma Elle Paterson). Moriarty said the Hometeamers have been pushed to their limit with Homelander worship. They refuse to truly believe Homelander is the next Jesus after serving as a test audience for a film suggesting the idea. She said the season 5 antagonist Oh Father—described as a corrupt superpowered preacher played by Daveed Diggs—orders that “Kill all the nonbelievers at the test screening. ” and lets Dogknott and Sheline do the dirty work. Moriarty said Annie finally reclaims her will to fight, saving most of the Hometeamers from certain death.

Moriarty described the choice as a reflection of who Annie is at her core, saying that when faced with people who vilified Starlight, crucified her publicly in ways that were unfounded, Annie decides to save them.

She also said finding Annie earlier in season 5 would have felt premature and dismissive of everything the character had gone through. Annie needed time to heal—and to grow—as she approached the conclusion of her story.

As her own final days on set approached. Moriarty said she felt overwhelmed with gratitude toward The Boys cast and crew. people she now calls a second family. She recalled looking at them and thinking she hadn’t seen them in two years. that she had been so sick. and that she hadn’t even been present. She said the disease took over, and she felt it lifting as she returned to filming and recognized faces again. “Wow, I am seeing these guys again,” she remembered thinking. “I’m playing this character again.”.

Now, she has to let Annie go as The Boys reaches its conclusion. She said her purpose shifted—turning from surviving to speaking. She described struggling and debating about whether to publicly talk about the diagnosis because she worries it can feel self-centered and take up too much space. But she said she’s undoing conditioning she received as a young woman, not to take up space.

Moriarty said she learned from Annie and Starlight’s advocacy by osmosis. She said she’s coming out of the experience having dealt with a challenge that affects more women than men. but that regardless of gender. she’s been through it. She said talking about it felt like the character inspired her to transcend self-consciousness about what people might think. What matters most. she said. is the people who read. hear. or see her struggles and feel less alone—especially those who might seek answers themselves.

If there was a single throughline across Moriarty’s life and her character’s story, it was this: hope didn’t arrive as a slogan. It arrived as a choice—after time, after treatment, and after people around her insisted she was worth saving.

Erin Moriarty The Boys Starlight Annie January Graves' disease Jack Quaid Laz Alonso Jaz Sinclair London Thor Eric Kripke Vought International Homelander Soldier Boy