Dame Judi Dench “can’t recognise anybody now” as her sight continues to deteriorate.
The 90-year-old actress suffers from macular degeneration – which can cause permanent and rapid central vision loss and is the number one cause of sight problems in people over 50 – and she’s now revealed the condition has become so advanced she now struggles to recognise friends and loves ones.
In an interview with ITV alongside her friend Sir Ian McKellen, Judi was asked why she’s now rarely seen on screen and she replied: “I can’t see anymore. I’ve got, you know, that thing.”
She then added to Ian: “I can see your outline and I know you so well in your Macbeth scarf. But I can’t recognise anybody now … I can’t see the television, I can’t see to read.”
Ian then joked: “But do you go up to total strangers and say: ‘Lovely to see you again?'” and Judi replied: “Sometimes.”
Judi first revealed in 2012 she is suffering with macular degeneration in her eyes, and in January this year, the veteran actress gave a bleak update on her condition revealing she can’t be left alone in case she falls over.
In an episode of Trinny Woodall’s Fearless podcast, she explained: “Somebody will always be with me. I have to now because I can’t see and I will walk into something or fall over.
“I’m always nervous before going to something. I have no idea why … I’m not good at being on my own at all, nor would I be now. And fortunately, I don’t have to now because I pretend to have no eyesight.”
During a 2021 event for the London-based Vision Foundation, Judi opened up about how she has been battling to read scripts due to her rapidly fading vision.
She said: “You find a way of just getting about and getting over the things that you find very difficult. I’ve had to find another way of learning lines and things, which is having great friends of mine repeat them to me over and over and over again.
“So I have to learn through repetition, and I just hope that people won’t notice too much if all the lines are completely hopeless!”
