Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway has spoken up about her struggles with her vision, and how she managed her life back then, for the first time. ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ actress, 43, revealed that she was "legally blind" in one eye for a decade, reports ‘People’ magazine.
During an April 22 appearance on The New York Times' podcast Popcast, she said, "This is maybe too much information. I was half blind for 10 years”. The actress shared that she had an early onset cataract from ages 30 to 40, which the Mayo Clinic defines as a clouding of the lens of the eye, which is typically clear.
For people who have cataracts, seeing through cloudy lenses is often like looking through a frosty or fogged-up window. Clouded vision caused by cataracts can make it hard to read, drive a car at night or see the expression on a friend's face. For the Mother Mary star, the condition impacted her vision "so much that I was basically legally blind out of my left eye", and caused her some severe stress, she said.
She shared, "I wound up getting surgery. And I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until I could finally see the full spectrum. I've calmed down since then. I didn't realize it was actually taxing my nervous system”. Cataracts are common particularly as people age, but surgery is often required to correct the issue in younger patients.
Legal blindness is also defined by the Social Security Administration (SSA) as severe vision loss. A person who is legally blind either has 20/200 or worse eyesight, even with correction, or they have a field of view that’s no more than 20 degrees wide.
"I appreciate vision because I literally feel like every day, I wake up and I get to see the way that I do, it's a miracle. I actually am like, 'Oh, two generations back, that wouldn't have been an option for someone like me.' So, I actually do feel very connected to that kind of a miracle”, the actress added.