Erin Moriarty says she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease in June 2025 and that her health was deteriorating while filming Season 5 of “The Boys,” including during the episode where her character Starlight shares key scenes with her father.
Erin Moriarty didn’t just finish filming “The Boys” Season 5 while playing Starlight. She said she did it while her body was breaking down—slowly at first, then in a way that made her feel disconnected from the work she was fighting to show up for.
Moriarty. who portrays Starlight. said she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease. an autoimmune condition that affects the thyroid gland. around June 2025. In her account of the final season. she described the time in physical and emotional terms: she wished she had been in a “more whole state” for the story she considers her character’s most important moment.
The hardest point. she said. came during a major emotional storyline in Season 5. especially the episode where her character Annie—also known as Starlight—shares important scenes involving her father. Moriarty said that around the time she shot the episode with her father. identified in the reporting as episode 4. she began to get “really sick.” She described it as a terrifying stretch: she said she didn’t know what was happening. that “all my dreams were coming true. ” while at the same time her health was “plummeting.”.
She said her early symptoms didn’t look like a clear medical emergency. At first, she thought she was dealing with stress and exhaustion from work. Doctors eventually confirmed the diagnosis, and she said the illness affected her during the early portion of filming. She described feeling “offline for the first six to seven episodes,” then slowly returning to feeling present. She later said she felt fully there only at the very end of Season 5.
“I started to feel so ill,” Moriarty said she explained why she is now speaking openly about autoimmune diseases. She said her background includes a family of doctors. yet no one had suggested getting her thyroid levels checked when she was showing warning signs. She said raising awareness matters because many people may not recognize early symptoms.
In her comments, Moriarty tied her honesty to what she wishes someone had told her sooner: get tested. She also said she noticed changes quickly after she began treatment, describing improvement within a short time after receiving care.
Her public disclosure came in June through social media. In that message, she said her condition had been getting worse for some time before she sought help. She wrote that after treatment began, she felt like she was slowly “returning to herself again.”
She also shared a more private detail from the worst of it. During the period she described as overwhelming and when she said she was unable to function normally, she reached out to her mother for immediate support. She said her mother came to help her quickly after she received the message.
Even with the health crisis, Moriarty said she is grateful for the cast and crew’s support during the hardest days of filming. But she added she has not been able to watch the final season, because it is too closely tied to that difficult period in her life.
For many viewers, “The Boys” is a fast-moving show built for impact on screen. For Moriarty, Season 5 was also proof of how seriously autoimmune disease can disrupt a life—and how long it can take before an illness is named, treated, and finally understood.
Erin Moriarty The Boys Starlight Graves’ disease autoimmune disease Season 5 Annie filming