The veteran British actress Judi Dench has delivered a deeply personal and heartbreaking update on her health, revealing that her vision has deteriorated so severely — due to Age‑related Macular Degeneration (AMD) — that she can no longer recognise friends or even watch television or read.
At age 90, Dench spoke candidly in a recent interview alongside longtime friend and colleague Ian McKellen. She said she “can’t see anymore. I’ve got that thing.” She added that she could make out McKellen’s familiar outline and recognise him only because she knows his Macbeth scarf so well, but emphasised: “I can’t recognise anybody now.” She described her daily life as fundamentally altered, explaining she is no longer able to watch TV or read written material.
Dench first disclosed her AMD diagnosis back in 2012. At the time, she revealed her mother had suffered the same condition, and that she herself was navigating early signs of deteriorating vision. Over the years, she has spoken openly about the challenges the disease posed: difficulties reading scripts, needing others to read lines aloud for her, and an increasing struggle to memorise dialogue. She recounted that for many years she relied on a form of photographic memory to learn her lines, but now she depends on friends or assistants to read them repeatedly.
In recent months, her condition has worsened significantly. Earlier this year, she admitted she no longer feels able to leave the house alone. She described walking into things, falling over, and needing someone with her whenever she ventured outside. The decline appears to have accelerated to the point where the simple acts many of us take for granted have become impossible — sight, as she said plainly, has been lost.