Hugh Grant reveals slew of bizarre coronavirus symptoms

“My eyeballs felt three sizes too big”: Hugh Grant has detailed the panic-inducing symptoms he experienced during a private coronavirus battle.

Actor Hugh Grant has revealed he and his wife battled coronavirus back in February – and experienced a slew of bizarre symptoms.

The British actor, 60, made the surprise admission during an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote his new TV show The Undoing, now streaming on Binge.

Grant said when he and wife Anna Eberstein were stuck down with the illness, he experienced all the common coronavirus symptoms, including a tightness in the chest and a loss of smell.

But other, more unusual symptoms soon followed.

“It started as just a very strange syndrome where I kept breaking into a terrible sweat,” he said, describing it as “like a poncho of sweat.”

“Then my eyeballs felt about three sizes too big and this … a feeling as though an enormous man was sitting on my chest, Harvey Weinstein or someone,” he said.

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Hugh and wife Anna Elisabet Eberstein were both struck down with the virus in February. Picture: Valerie Macon/AFP

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Grant said that when he realised his sense of smell had disappeared he started “to panic.”

“I started sniffing flowers, nothing. And you get more and more desperate. I started sniffing in garbage cans. You know, you want to sniff strangers’ armpits because you just can’t smell anything,” he explained, telling Colbert he even resorted to spraying his wife’s Chanel No. 5 perfume “directly” into his face.

Grant said a recent test, taken some nine months after his initial diagnosis, revealed he now has antibodies for the deadly virus.

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Hugh Grant: “I felt as though an enormous man was sitting on my chest.” Picture: AFP

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Grant’s not the only star speaking out about the difficult and sometimes bizarre reality of life with coronavirus – actress Alyssa Milano has experienced months of strange symptoms since battling the virus in March.

Milano told fans she still struggled to remember words and was experiencing extreme hair loss, as shown in a video posted to her social media accounts. After silently brushing her hair for less than a minute, Milano holds the resulting clump of hair up to the camera. “One brushing. This is my hair loss from COVID-19. Wear a damn mask.”

Thought I’d show you what #Covid19 does to your hair. Please take this seriously. #WearADamnMask #LongHauler pic.twitter.com/H0wCmzYswV

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) August 9, 2020

In another tweet posted in August, Milano shared that while she was “acutely sick” with coronavirus in April, symptoms persist to this day. “I am what they call a ‘long hauler’. Last night, I had real heaviness in my chest. I went to the ER just to make sure it wasn’t a blood clot. Thankfully, it wasn’t,” she wrote.

Grant and Milano are two of many celebrities who’ve gone public with their coronavirus diagnoses – stars including The Rock, Bryan Cranston, Khloe Kardashian, Debi Mazar, Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have all battled the deadly illness.