Former ‘NCIS’ Star Pauley Perrette Reveals She ‘Cheated Death’ Last Year After Suffering A ‘Massive Stroke’

Pauley Perrette, who spent years starring on the CBS drama “NCIS,” has shocked her fans by revealing she suffered a “massive stroke” last year.

Perrette Suffered ‘Massive Stroke’

Perrette, 53, revealed this shocking information in a video that she posted to Twitter on Friday. 

“It’s 9/2. One year ago I had a massive stoke[sic]. Before that I lost so many beloved family and friends, and daddy, and then Cousin Wayne,” she wrote in the video’s caption. “Yet still a survivor after this traumatic life I’ve been given so far… And still so grateful, still so full of faith, and STILL HERE!”

“How many times do I cheat death?” Perrette said in the accompanying video, as per the Daily Mail, which saw the actress sporting rainbow-colored hair. “I almost died from a hair dye allergy, I have food allergies. I’m a domestic violence and rape survivor.”

She continued, “I’ve been through a lot in the last two years. Things that are harder than having a stroke. But I’m still here. And I’m still grateful. And thank you, those of you who are my friends.”

Perrette didn’t go public at the time that she suffered from the stroke. 

Perrette Attacked By Homeless Man

On top of the struggles that Perrette listed out in the above video, she was also allegedly attacked by a “psychotic homeless man” outside her home in Los Angeles back in 2015. Perrette had been trying to walk to a guest house she owned across the street when the homeless man attacked her out of nowhere, pinning her to the ground while he shouted, “I’m going to kill you.”

“On my street, I was jumped by a very psychotic homeless man,” she said at the time. “He grabbed me so forcefully, pinned my arm and punched me in the nose and forehead. He [kept] repeatedly telling me he was going to kill me. Then he showed me how he was going to kill me.”

Related: Pauley Perrette Is Livid CBS Fired “MacGyver” Showrunner Yet Mark Harmon Remains On “NCIS”

Perrette went on to say that the homeless man was also shouting his own name, which was William, and that she was able to escape with her life by reasoning with him.

“There was an empty garage behind me and I knew if he got me in there I was dead,” she wrote.

“I knew I couldn’t overcome him. I prayed my little heart out and then finally said, ‘William is a beautiful name, I have a little nephew named William,'” she recalled.

Finally, the homeless man reportedly stopped punching Perrette and told her to “get the f—k out of here.”

Perrette’s Career 

People Magazine reported that Perrette became a household name when she played Abby Sciuto on “NCIS” for fifteen seasons before she left the show in May of 2018.

Though she was a fan favorite on the beloved series, Perrette said afterwards that she would “never” return to the show because she was “terrified” of her co-star Mark Harmon, whom she accused of “multiple physical assaults” on the show’s set.

Full Story: Pauley Perrette Never Coming Back to ‘NCIS’ Because She’s ‘Terrified’ of Mark Harmon

After leaving “NCIS,” Perrette starred on the short-lived CBS sitcom “Broke,” which was cancelled in 2020. According to her IMDB page, Perrette doesn’t have any other projects in the works at this time.