Brian Cox reveals coronavirus diagnosis despite never having 'felt it'

Actor Brian Cox says a recent test revealed that he has COVID-19 antibodies, despite not having experiencing any of the usual symptoms.

Talking to James Corden on The Late Late Show, Cox says he hadn’t realised he’d had a bout of the virus as he ‘never felt anything’.

Appearing via video link from London, the 74-year-old Succession star told Corden that his doctor had tested him for coronavirus while he was undergoing routine blood tests for his diabetes.

“My doctor called and said, ‘oh, congratulations you’ve had it [COVID-19]’,” Cox explains, “‘And you’ve got the antibodies’.”

Read more: Succession S3 hoping to shoot before Christmas

“I said, ‘When? When did I have it?’”

His doctor wasn’t able to tell him, and asked the actor if and when he had experienced symptoms, but Cox said he couldn’t recall ever having had the telltale coronavirus symptoms of a high temperature, a new continuous cough, or a loss or change to his sense of smell or taste.

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Cox went on to say that he thinks he might have caught it while directing a play in London in December, 2019. He says when he returned home to his home in Massachusetts he experienced a bout of tiredness and ‘sneezing attacks’ which he, at the time, attributed to jet lag, but he now believes may have been symptoms of coronavirus.

He says a recent test shows he still has COVID-19 antibodies.

Sneezing is not currently recognised as a symptom on the novel coronavirus by the NHS, WHO or the CDC, and the first cases of the new virus were first formally recorded in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The first cases of coronavirus cases in the UK were recorded in York on 31 January, 2020.

Cox’s take on Joshua Sobol’s Sinners ran at the Playground theatre, London in February 2020.

The actor was on the show to discuss his award-winning performance as media mogul Logan Roy in HBO’s hit drama Succession, which hopes to start shooting its third season soon after it was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Although he wouldn’t be drawn on what happens in the third season, he revealed he knows where the show is going and that it’s ‘jolly exciting’.