Beloved actress Dame Judi Dench bravely opened up about her worsening eyesight amid her battle with macular degeneration.
Judi Dench Shares Update on Worsening Eyesight
The Academy Award winner, 90, shared an update with fans about her vision loss during a recent visit at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, per The New Daily.
“I canât see any more,” Dench said. “When I go to the theatre, I canât see. Hopeless.”
She went on to say that in order to support friend Dame Celia Imrie on the BBCâs “Celebrity Traitors,” she needs someone to tell her “what was happening.”
Judi Dench Suffers From Macular Degeneration
Dench first revealed her macular degeneration diagnosis in 2012, during an interview with Daily Mirror.
“I canât read scripts any more,” she said at the time. “Somebody comes and reads them to me, like telling me a story. Itâs usually my daughter or my agent or a friend, and actually, I like that, because I sit there and imagine the story in my mind. Iâve got what my ma had, macular degeneration, which you get when you get old.”
She later explained that she cannot go anywhere by herself anymore, which she considers an upside to her diagnosis.
“Iâm always nervous before going to something. I have no idea why. Iâm not good at that at all. Not at all. Nor would I be now. And fortunately, I donât have to be now because I pretend to have no eyesight,” she told Trinny Woodall on her “Fearless” podcast in January. “Somebody will always be with me. I have to now because I canât see and I will walk into something or fall over.”
What Is Macular Degeneration?
According to the Cleveland Clinic, “macular degeneration is an eye disease that affects central vision.”
The clinic’s website explains that the disease affects a person’s ability to “see things directly in front of them,” adding that the condition is most commonly found in people over the age of 50.
“Macular degeneration affects your macula, the central part of your retina. Your retina is in the back of your eye and controls central vision. People with macular degeneration arenât completely blind. Their peripheral vision (ability to see things off to the sides) is fine,” the clinic continues.
The “Skyfall” star called her diagnosis “one of the most traumatic moments” of her life, during a 2019 conversation with the Radio Times.
“It was absolutely appalling,” she said. “But I just know Iâll kill somebody if I get behind the wheel of a car now.”
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