![Antonio Banderas: "I was like, why am I worried about that if I'm going to die?. I knew always [that I was going to die], but now I know. I've seen it right here."](https://www.rte.ie/images/001d0596-800.jpg)
Antonio Banderas has said having a heart attack was "one of the best things" that's ever happened to him as it forced him to make necessary life changes.
In 2017, the now 62-year-old actor suffered a cardiac event he later underwent surgery to have three stents implanted into his coronary arteries.
Speaking to the New York Post column PageSix, he said: "I realised that it [the heart attack] probably was one of the best things that ever happened in my life because the things that were not important and I was worried every day about them, meaningless.
"I was like, why am I worried about that if I'm going to die?. I knew always [that I was going to die], but now I know. I’ve seen it right here."
Banderas previously praised his girlfriend Nicole Kimpel for saving his life by giving him an aspirin when he started to have symptoms.
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he explained: "My girlfriend, she had a headache and we didn't have anything in the house. So she went out to buy something, a painkiller or whatever. She bought this aspirin, which is the only thing that she found and she found the maximum one, I think it was five milligrams.
"The next morning, when I started having the symptoms and I clearly knew what was going on, she put one of those aspirins inside of my tongue and that saved my life. Yeah. So I had a second chance."
