- Dame Judi Dench, 90, says she doesn’t enjoy attending events alone.
- “I’m not good at that at all, nor would I be now,” the Oscar-winning actor said on a podcast.
- But these days, her deteriorating eyesight means she doesn’t go out alone anymore, she added.
Dame Judi Dench, 90, isn’t a fan of going to events on her own.
“I’m not good at that at all, nor would I be now,” the Oscar-winning actor said during an appearance on the “Fearless” podcast hosted by Trinny Woodall.
“I’m always nervous before going to something. I am nervous about — I don’t know — I have no idea why,” Dench said.
The “James Bond” star said she usually needs to have a partner — such as her agent — accompany her.
“Somebody will always be with me,” Dench said. “I have to now because I can’t see, and I will walk into something or fall over.”
In 2012, she told The Mirror that she had been diagnosed with macular degeneration, a disease that affects a person’s central vision. It is the leading cause of vision loss among Americans 65 and older, per the CDC.
But “fortunately,” she doesn’t have to go out alone now “because I pretend to have no eyesight,” she said.
In 2023, Dench said on “The Graham Norton Show” that her vision had gotten so bad she couldn’t read scripts anymore.
“It has become impossible, and because I have a photographic memory, I need to find a machine that not only teaches me my lines but also tells me where they appear on the page,” Dench said. “I used to find it very easy to learn lines and remember them.”
Dench has been with her partner, conservationist David Mills, since 2010. She shares one daughter, Finty Williams, with her late husband, the actor Michael Williams, who died of lung cancer in 2001.
Despite a career spanning almost seven decades, Dench has hinted at retirement due to her worsening vision.
When asked by a reporter in 2024 if she had any plans for future roles, Dench responded with “No, no, I can’t even see,” per The Guardian.
Her last onscreen role was in 2022’s “Spirited,” per her IMDB page.
She previously told The Mirror in 2023 that she wanted to work “as much as I can.”
“I have an irrational fear of boredom,” she said. “That’s why I now have this tattoo that says carpe diem. That’s what we should live by.”
A representative for Dench did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.
