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Judi Dench has said she can no longer attend events or go out alone due to her deteriorating eyesight, saying she now needs someone to “always be with me”.
In 2012, Dench first revealed a diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the degenerative eye condition that is the biggest cause of sight loss in the UK, affecting more than 700,000 people.
Speaking to Trinny Woodall on her Fearless podcast, Dench, 90, said that red carpet premieres now presented a considerable problem – although her condition did come with some upsides.
“Somebody will always be with me. I have to now because I can’t see and I will walk into something or fall over,” said Dench.
“I’m always nervous before going to something. I have no idea why. I’m not good at that at all. Not at all. Nor would I be now. And fortunately, I don’t have to be now because I pretend to have no eyesight.”
Two years ago, Dench said that AMD had affected her career as she now struggled to learn lines, having done so largely in the past thanks to a photographic memory.
“I can’t see on a film set any more,” she said in 2023, adding: “And I can’t see to read. But you just deal with it.
“It’s difficult if I have any length of a part. I haven’t yet found a way. Because I have so many friends who will teach me the script.”
Dench’s most recent screen credit was a small role in Christmas movie Spirited in 2022; earlier that year she had a more substantial part in Alan Bennett adaptation Allelujah. The previous year, she received her eighth Oscar nomination for her work on Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast.
The actor has taken part in a number of live appearances over the past year, including in an audience with Gyles Brandreth at a Christmas show at the Palladium, where she paid tribute to her late friend, Maggie Smith.
Last year, she also became one of the first female members of the Garrick club, was presented with a seedling from the Sycamore Gap tree at the Chelsea flower show, which she named Antoninus and weighed in on the debate over trigger warnings at the theatre.
She also appeared at the Hay literary festival to promote a new book about her long association with the works of William Shakespeare, and won plaudits for a TV show following her and unlikely buddy Jay Blades.
In 2019, Dench losing her eyesight was “one of the most traumatic moments” of her life. “It was absolutely appalling,” she said. “But I just know I’ll kill somebody if I get behind the wheel of a car now.”
