Anne Hathaway has revealed for the first time that she spent a decade effectively half blind, a health struggle she kept largely private until a recent podcast appearance brought it into the open.
Speaking on The New York Times’ Popcast on 22 April, the actress, 43, told hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli that she developed an early onset cataract in her left eye between the ages of 30 and 40, which left her vision so severely impaired that she was legally blind in that eye for the duration.
“This is maybe too much information,” she said before launching into it. “I was half blind for 10 years.”
Cataracts, a clouding of the eye’s lens that typically affects older people, are not unheard of in younger patients, though early onset cases are considerably rarer.
For Hathaway, the condition meant her left eye was functioning at the level that meets the legal definition of blindness, and she only fully grasped how serious it had become once she had surgery to correct it.
“I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten until I could finally see the full spectrum,” she said.
The experience had also been taking a quiet but significant toll on her wellbeing.
“I didn’t realize it was actually taxing my nervous system,” she added. “I’ve calmed down since then.”
The revelation has given her a lasting sense of gratitude for her sight.
“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,” she said.
“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.”
