House of the Dragon actor James Norton has shared details of a frightening medical incident at a major awards event, explaining how a sudden blood sugar crash caused backstage confusion while Nicole Kidman was speaking.
Speaking on the Table Manners podcast with Jessie and Lennie Ware, the 41-year-old described how his Type 1 diabetes nearly left him unconscious during the GQ Man of the Year Awards.
The conversation was released on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, as Norton took part in the podcast while taking a break from filming the upcoming Beatles biopic in Spain. In the episode, he also discussed growing up in Yorkshire, his family’s love of outdoor swimming and his continuing life with Type 1 diabetes.
Norton, who learned he had the condition at 22, said formal dinners can be especially difficult to manage because insulin timing depends heavily on when carbohydrates actually arrive.
“I put my insulin in thinking we were going to have some bread with the starter,” Norton explained.
Instead, he said the opening course offered almost no carbs at all.
“The starter arrived, and it was this little bit of trout, smoked trout, with no carbs. I was on the high table and they were honoring Jude Law and Nicole Kidman and all these people. There were speeches after the starter.”
Because he had already taken insulin, his blood sugar began dropping fast toward hypoglycemia, commonly known as a hypo.
Seated prominently at the high table, Norton said he felt unable to disrupt the ceremony even as the symptoms became harder to ignore.
“I couldn’t interrupt the speeches because I was sitting at the high table,” he continued. “I eventually started sweating. You get really wobbly. You eventually will faint.”
Realizing he had only a short window before he might pass out, he slipped away and alerted a member of staff that he urgently needed sugar.
After getting a chocolate bar and some juice, he made his way back to the table, only to later discover that his quiet request had triggered a full-scale backstage scramble.
“What I didn’t realize was that pandemonium had broken out backstage,” he laughed. “They were like, ‘James Norton’s about to have a hypo.’ In the middle of Nicole Kidman’s speech, someone randomly brings me a steaming plate of potatoes.”
Norton said the moment must have looked bizarre to everyone else in the room, as though he had decided mid-ceremony that the event was beneath him and wanted hot carbs served immediately.
Even so, he has consistently used his platform to raise awareness about diabetes. He is currently supporting Breakthrough T1D through his 2026 London Marathon fundraising effort, and his charity page describes the campaign as a way to raise both money and awareness for type 1 diabetes research.
He has also said he now uses a continuous glucose monitor to help manage his blood sugar levels more effectively.
He also spoke optimistically about where treatment could be heading in the years ahead.
“There is incredible advances… and I think we’re getting closer,” he shared. “My hope is within like 10-15 years we all won’t be administering insulin.”
Norton’s latest podcast appearance comes as he continues a busy year of work, including his film Sunny Dancer, which is due out on August 14, 2026.