Claire Foy Opens Up About Her Husband's Heartbreaking Cancer Battle

She's wowed audiences for two years in her breakout role as Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix'sThe Crown- but behind-the-scenes, Claire Foy has faced a heartbreaking personal struggle.

The 33-year-old actress has starred as the monarch since November 2016, when the hugely acclaimed first series of the royal drama was released. But recently, it's been revealed that at the time of filming, she and her family were going through a devastating personal crisis.

At the end of 2016, shortly after she had given birth to their child, she and her husband Stephen Campbell Moore were dealt the heartbreaking blow that he had a benign brain tumour.

Doctors had found the tumour on actor Stephen's pituitary gland, at the base of the brain, just a year after their daughter was born.

Speaking for the first time to The Sun about the awful diagnosis during a busy time filming her hit series, Claire has confessed, "You realise you're not the most important person in that process, and everybody who loves you goes through far worse."

She also shared that her daughter wasn't aware at the time of the situation, but that it hit the whole family hard.

"My daughter didn't know what was going on at all. But my family did, and I could see it in them."

Luckily, Stephen came through the operation successfully, and it's thought that he is now fully recovered.

At the time, the History Boys actor admitted that the scare made him question if he should prepare for the worst.

He said, "There are certain things that you make sure you've done before you go into surgery.

"You write a letter. But it's all very much on the offchance that something did go wrong, because every part of you is saying that nothing will.

"But waking up and being told the operation had gone well was understandably a huge relief."

And unfortunately, it's not the first terrifying health scare Claire has faced.

In her interview, Claire shared that she herself had faced cancer before, after being diagnosed with a benign eye tumour when she was just 17.

However, the star admitted that the scary experience only made her more determined to realise her dreams of being an actress, after years of working as a cashier at Tesco.

"It was horrible and debilitating, but it made me realise that I needed to grab the life I wanted.

"If that hadn't happened, I don't know if I would have been brave enough to throw my cards on the table and say I wanted to study drama."