Legendary actress Judi Dench has shared a heartbreaking update on her degenerative eye condition, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Philomena star, who was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 2012, confessed to no longer being able to recognize loved ones as her condition rapidly progresses.
Dench shared a heartbreaking update on her eye condition.
Dench explained she hasn’t been on camera in years because she ‘can’t see.’
AMD is the leading cause of vision loss in people aged 60 and over. As a result, the condition has significantly impacted Dench’s career, making it difficult for her to read scripts and watch TV.
She also requires assistance with daily tasks, including leaving her home.
Dench addressed her absence from cameras due to her eye condition in a recent interview for a new Shakespeare teaching resource alongside her longtime costar Ian McKellen.
Dench was diagnosed with AMD in 2012.
In the ITV News clip, Dench and McKellen playfully tried on costume pieces at The Royal Shakespeare Company.
When asked about why Dench hasn’t been seen on camera in years, the Dame explained, “No, because I can’t see anymore.”
McKellen sweetly interjected, “We can see you.”
Dench Admits She ‘Can’t Recognize Anyone’
Dench revealed her condition has worsened to the point where she ‘can’t recognize anyone.’
“Yes, and I can see your outline, and I know you so well with your Macbeth scarf,” Dench told her Macbeth costar, “But I can’t recognize anyone.”
She added: “People think, ‘Oh, get her, she’s got very grand,’ but it’s because I can’t see. I can’t see the television, can’t see to read.”
“Do you go up to total strangers and just say to them, ‘Lovely to see you again,'” McKellen asked, to which Dench replied with a chuckle, “Yes, sometimes!”
The 90-year-old previously opened up about losing her ability to read scripts at a 2021 event for the London-based Vision Foundation.
Dench Finds ‘Another Way of Learning Lines’
“You find a way of just getting about and getting over the things that you find very difficult,” Dench explained. “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.”
She added: “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!”
During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Dench revealed she also struggles with memorizing her lines, as she always relied on her photographic memory to study scripts.
Dench previously confessed she has trouble memorizing lines because she relied on her photographic memory.
“I need to find a machine that not only teaches me my lines but also tells me where they appear on the page,” she said on the talk show. “I used to find it very easy to learn lines and remember them. I could do the whole of Twelfth Night right now.”
Dench’s last major film appearance came in 2022’s Allelujah. She has since appeared in a handful of documentaries as herself.
In May, she confessed she had no major projects coming down the pike due to her deteriorating eyesight.
When a journalist stopped her at the Chelsea Flower Market and asked if she planned on acting anytime soon, she quipped, “No, no, I can’t even see!”
