She has been open about living with macular degeneration since 2012
By Max Pilley 30th November 2025
Judi Dench at The RHS Chelsea Flower Show on May 20, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)
Judi Dench has revealed that she “can’t recognise anybody now” due to her deteriorating eyesight.
The acting legend, 90, has been open about living with macular degeneration, a condition which has seen her vision worsen over the years since she first disclosed her diagnosis in 2012.
AdvertisementEarlier this year, she revealed that she was “battling blindness”, explaining that she could no longer read scripts “because of the trouble with my eyes”, and so she was relying on friends and colleagues to read them to her, “like telling me a story”.
Now, she has given a joint interview to ITV News with Ian McKellen, in which she said, “I can’t see anymore”.
@itvnewsActors Judi Dench and Ian McKellen re-unite to back a new way of teaching Shakespeare #itvnews #shakespeare
♬ original sound – itvnews
When McKellen, who starred opposite Dench in Macbeth on stage in 1979, quipped that they could see her, she replied: “Yes, and 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.”
McKellen then asked if she ever goes up to “total strangers” to say “lovely to see you again”, to which she laughed and replied, “sometimes!”
RecommendedShe has spoken on the difficulties her sight loss has had on her career in the past, revealing during a talk for The Vision Foundation: “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”.
Dench has had a historic acting career, appearing in films such as Shakespeare In Love, Philomena and Belfast, and she played M in the James Bond franchise from 1995-2015. She was lifelong friends with the late Dame Maggie Smith, and recently got emotional when she spoke about the star’s death last year. She also revealed she has “memorial trees” for friends who have passed on, including Alan Rickman and Helen McCrory.
She has won an Oscar, a Tony, two Golden Globes, four BAFTA television awards, six BAFTA film awards and seven Oliviers.
