Kaley Cuoco isn’t trying to hide her scars. Instead, she wears them like a badge of honor.
The Based on a True Story actor, 37, opened up about her scars, as well as the accident where she acquired them, during an appearance on the SmartLess podcast, cohosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes.
Cuoco is an experienced horse jumper and competitor, so her September 2010 visit to a Los Angeles ranch should have been smooth sailing—unfortunately, it was anything but. Shortly after she saddled up and readied to ride, her horse got spooked and threw Cuoco off. She landed on the ground, directly under the horse, which attempted to jump over her but instead crushed her left leg. The average horse weighs up to 1,200 pounds, so you can imagine the damage.
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“I remember clear as day, because it takes a second when something is that bad. I was like, ‘Did I just fall on a whole thing of leaves?’ Because I heard all the cracking,” she explained to everyone’s horror. “It took me like 5 or 10 seconds to actually realize it wasn’t just 400 leaves; it was my bones.” Cuoco sustained a compound fracture of her tibia and fibula, which resulted in a “horrible, horrible, horrible break” that forced her bones through her skin.
Due to the severity of the injury, doctors made Cuoco sign a release form that allowed them to amputate her leg if necessary. “They made me sign something that said, ‘We don’t know until we get in there and see this leg, and it could come out that you don’t have it anymore,’” she shared in The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series. Thankfully, Cuoco was back on her feet after two weeks, despite doctors not expecting her to be able to walk again.
