Antonio Banderas Gives Health Update After Heart Attack: 'No Second Chance'

Antonio Banderas

Antonio Banderas shed new light on the heart attack he suffered back in 2017.

The 63-year-old actor and director described the scary ordeal as "a knock at the door for me," telling Fox News Digital reporters in an interview published on Thursday, Nov. 16, "It could have been very bad."

"I mean, if people ask me, 'So, how is it to have a heart attack?' I don't know," he said. "I can tell you about my own."

At the time, Banderas said that the health emergency he suffered wasn't "serious and hasn't caused any damage," though he later shared that he had to undergo heart surgery to have three stents placed in his arteries.

Six years later, he realizes how lucky he was, explaining to the outlet that there's "no second chance."

"And there are people who have a heart attack that they don't even know. Sleeping or whatever. And then they feel weird the next day, and they don't even know what happened," he shared. "In my case, it was a close call and advice to just really, really, really look at life in a different way. I was just going on the wrong path."

While reflecting on the situation, Banderas suggested that his behavior and the stress associated with his divorce from Melanie Griffith and "finding sanctuary in work" wasn't the healthiest way to live.

"I was coming out of my divorce and was confused," he said. "It was just doing a lot of things. I'm protecting myself and finding sanctuary in work. Making movies one behind the other. It was crazy."

"And, so, when I stopped, and I came out of this horse of adrenaline is when my heart said, ‘Pow, stop it.’ It's not the way. So, do what you want to do."

In the years since he's recovered, he said he's learned to live his life and view success differently.

"What I wanted to do is to go back to the beginning. Reset. My reset took me to my hometown. I bought a theater, which I have now, and I'm having a blast. Success is just do what you want to do in the way you want to do it. And that is exactly what I'm doing right now in my life." He concluded, "And I feel very healthy."

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