Judi Dench, 90, ‘unable to leave the house alone’ as actress delivers heartbreaking health update: ‘Not good on my own’
Dame Judi Dench has updated fans on her deteriorating health condition, with the 90-year-old revealing she can no longer leave the house alone.
The veteran actress has spoken candidly about her macular degeneration diagnosis, a condition which affects eyesight and leads to loss of vision.
The multi-award-winning actress shared a new update, detailing how she now always needs a companion when she leaves the house.
“Somebody will always be with me,” she explained. “I have to now because I can’t see and I will walk into something or fall over.”
Expressing her understandable concerns about attending events, she added: “I’m always nervous before going to something.
“I have no idea why… I’m not good at being on my own at all, nor would I be now.”
Speaking on Trinny Woodall’s Fearless podcast, Dench quipped: “Fortunately, I don’t have to now because I pretend to have no eyesight.”
Dench has shared several updates about her sight in the past couple of years, detailing how she could no longer see TV and film sets during an interview in 2023.
“I can’t see on a film set anymore, and I can’t see to read, so I can’t see much,” she explained.
“But, you know, you just deal with it. Get on,” she concluded while speaking to The Mirror’s Notebook magazine.
“It’s difficult for me if I have any length of a part. I haven’t yet found a way,” she added.
“Because I have so many friends who will teach me the script. But I have a photographic memory.”
During a programme dedicated to the late Dame Maggie Smith, which aired in December, Dench detailed a touching tribute she’d sorted for her friend.
Smith died at 89 in September, and to mark what would have been her 90th birthday, the BBC aired a special programme in honour of one of the UK’s most recognisable and prominent actresses.
Dench shared moving memories on the show, along with some other famous faces who had worked alongside Smith.
Dench has spoken before about how she plants trees in memory of her friends who have died, and revealed during the BBC look-back at Smith’s life how she had done the same for Smith.
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She also added that the tree had produced fruit on the day of her funeral.
“I had it in my pocket at her funeral, which was a very nice thing to have. We had such great times,” she reflected.
The actress had starred alongside Smith in several films, such as Ladies in Lavender and A Room With A View.
“I have known her for a long long time,” Dench continued. She described her late co-star as “very, very funny and unbelievably witty, and a really sweet and special friend.”
She also admitted Smith, who also starred in the Harry Potter films as the beloved Professor McGonagall, could be “quite frightening”.