Kaley Cuoco says she was lucky not to lose her leg in a “horrible” horse riding incident.
The “Big Bang Theory” star, 37, shared on Apple’s “SmartLess” podcast that she broke her leg 12 or 13 years ago after falling off a horse.
“It was a bad accident, it was a very bad accident,” she told co-hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes.
The fall itself didn’t break any bones, she explained, but she was seriously injured when the horse stepped on her leg.
“I remember clear as day, because it takes a second when something is that bad," she said. “I was like, ‘Did I just fall on a whole thing of leaves?’ Because I heard all the cracking. … It took me like five or 10 seconds to actually realize it wasn’t just 400 leaves, it was my bones.”
Cuoco said she suffered a compound fracture of her tibia and fibula, the two bones that connect the ankle to the knee, causing the bones to pierce through the skin of her lower leg.
“It just was a horrible, horrible, horrible break,” she said.
She said she underwent surgery following the gruesome accident. Before going under anesthesia, she had to sign a release allowing doctors to amputate her leg if needed.
Luckily, doctors were able to save her limb, and they inserted pins and rods in her leg that remain there to this day.
“I’ve got some good scars,” Cuoco said. “It makes you feel like a badass.”
She added that while doctors didn’t think she would walk for three months, she was “walking in a week with a boot,” and was back to filming “The Big Bang Theory” within two weeks.
“It was miraculous,” she said.
The actor, who stars in Peacock's new dark comedy series, "Based on a True Story," is known for her love of horses and other animals.
In April, she shared a sweet photo of her newborn daughter, Matilda, meeting one of the family’s horses for the first time in a stable.
“Finally Tildy met her barn friends today!” she captioned a photo in her Instagram story.
Cuoco and her partner, “Ozark” star Tom Pelphrey, welcomed baby Matilda on March 30.
“Introducing, Matilda Carmine Richie Pelphrey, the new light of our lives!” she wrote on Instagram a few days after Matilda was born. “We are overjoyed and grateful for this little miracle.”