Dame Judi Dench, 87, can't read or write due to advanced macular degeneration

Dame Judi Dench has revealed she now can’t read due to suffering from advanced macular degeneration, but she has no plans to retire.

The legendary actress has opened up about her health, with the star admitting she struggles to see and has had to find ways to work around it.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common condition that affects the middle part of the vision and can start affecting people in their 50s and 60s. It doesn’t cause complete blindness but can make activities like reading and recognising faces harder.

‘I don’t want to retire. I’m not doing anything much at the moment because I can’t see,’ she told Louis Theroux in his new interview series. ‘It’s bad, bad enough. Bad enough in that you’re quite fuzzy.’

Dame Judi went on: ‘I’ve got to teach myself a new way of learning. I have a photographic memory so a person saying to me, “This is your line”- I can do that. And I have many people who can help me. Nevertheless, I realise that I need to know where it is on the page. I’ll teach myself a way, I know I will. So long as I don’t trip over doing it.’

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She also revealed that she also recently asked her partner, David Mills to cut her food up for her.

‘I went to a dinner a few weeks ago, a rather important dinner,’ she recalled.

‘It was so dark that I said to David, who was next to me, “Have I anything on my plate?” He said, “Yes”. I said, “Does it need cutting up?” So he said, “Yes” and I said, “Would you do it?” He cut it up and handed something to me on a fork and that’s the way I ate it.’

At the beginning of this year, Dame Judi revealed she’d suffered a ‘frightful fall’ at her home.

The acting legend admitted that keeping her independence is becoming ‘very difficult’ as she grows older as she detailed her recent scare.

‘I tripped over the carpet, and there was nobody in the house and I was lying on the ground unable to get up for half an hour,’ she told Saga magazine.

Despite the distressing situation, Dame Judi kept her humour, as she recalled her pet parrot kept asking her: ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’

‘This is when you need a very convenient parrot who would phone somebody,’ she joked, ‘but she didn’t.’

The Belfast star lives alone, although her partner David Mills and daughter Finty Williams live nearby.

Thankfully, the beloved actress recovered and was able to pull herself up after half an hour.

Despite the scare, Dame Judi is adamant she is not willing to install a panic alarm in her home as she wants to keep her independence – but admits it is ‘very, very difficult’.

Louis Theroux Interviews: Dame Judi Dench will air on November 1 at 9:15pm on BBC Two.

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