Judi Dench says she no longer goes to events alone, citing vision loss

Judi Dench, the veteran English stage and film actress, said this month that her vision loss had progressed to the point that she no longer attended red-carpet premieres and other events alone.

"I have to now because I can't see and I'll walk into something," Dench, who turned 90 last month, said in an interview on the podcast "Fearless" last week.

Dench, who played M in seven James Bond movies, began her acting career in the late 1950s. In 1988, Queen Elizabeth II made her a dame, the female equivalent of a knight.

In recent years, Dench has spoken about how her worsening eyesight has made it more difficult to work and read scripts. She told The Los Angeles Times in 2012 that she had macular degeneration, a common eye problem that, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, is a leading cause of vision loss for people older than 50.

An estimated 19.8 million Americans older than 40 had age-related macular degeneration in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In an episode of the podcast "Fearless" that was released Jan. 14, Dench spoke about her vision loss with the host, Trinny Woodall, an English television personality known for her work on fashion makeover shows.

Woodall asked Dench how she had navigated high-profile theater and film events during her career, and Dench said it was something she had not been good at when she had done it alone, before her vision deteriorated. "Nor would I be now," she said.

"And fortunately, I don't have to be now," she added, laughing, "because I pretend to have no eyesight."

A representative for Dench did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Dench told The Sunday Mirror in 2023 that she was trying to work as much as she could even though she could no longer see well enough to read. "I mean I can't see on a film set anymore," she said.

"It's difficult for me if I have any length of a part," she said. "I haven't yet found a way. Because I have so many friends who will teach me the script. But I have a photographic memory."

Her most recent film appearances include a cameo in the 2022 film "Spirited" and as a grandmother in the 2021 film "Belfast," a role for which she received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

In 2023 and 2024, she did several performances in Britain of a two-person show, "I Remember It Well," also starring her friend Gyles Brandreth, in which she recounted anecdotes from her life.