Judi Dench says her vision is now so bad she can no longer go out alone

Source: Trinny Woodall/Fearless Podcast
Acting great Dame Judi Dench says she can no longer attend events or leave her home alone as her eyesight deteriorates, saying she needs someone to “always be with me”.
Speaking with beauty entrepreneur Trinny Woodall on her Fearless podcast this week, the Academy Award winner said that due to her age-related macular degeneration (AMD), red carpet premieres now presented a considerable problem.
“Somebody will always be with me. I have to now because I can’t see and I will walk into something or fall over,” she said.
But the acclaimed actor said there was an upside to her condition.
“I’m always nervous before going to something. I have no idea why,” Dench said.
“I’m not good at that at all. … And fortunately, I don’t have to be because I pretend to have no eyesight,” she joked.
Dench, 90, first revealed she was diagnosed with AMD in 2012.
In 2019, she told the Radio Times that losing her eyesight was “one of the most traumatic moments” of her life.
“It was absolutely appalling,” Dench said. “But I just know I’ll kill somebody if I get behind the wheel of a car now.”
In 2023 she said AMD had affected her career as she 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 told Sunday Mirror’s Notebook magazine at the time. “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.”
AMD is estimated to be responsible for half of all blindness and severe vision loss in Australia.
The Macula Disease Foundation Australia says the condition causes progressive loss of central vision and affects the ability to undertake everyday activities like reading, watching TV and recognise faces.
By itself, AMD doesn’t lead to total vision loss – or black blindness – the MDFA says.

Dench won an Oscar for her performance in Shakespeare in Love. Photo: Universal
Dench, who has appeared in countless stage, television and movie productions, last appeared 2022 Christmas movie Spirited.
Making in her stage debut in 1957, she won a best supporting actress Oscar in 1998 for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.
Her eighth, and most recent, Oscar nomination was for her supporting role in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast in 2021.