Anne Hathaway Reveals She Was 'Legally Blind' in Left Eye for a Decade Before Finally Undergoing Surgery at Age 40
Anne Hathaway Reveals She Was 'Legally Blind' in Left Eye for a Decade Before Finally Undergoing Surgery at Age 40
Charlotte PhillippFri, May 22, 2026 at 8:43 PM UTC
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Anne Hathaway on April 18, 2026 in Santa Monica, California.
Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty
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Anne Hathaway revealed she was legally blind in one eye for a decade due to an early onset cataract
The actress underwent surgery to restore her vision and shared how the condition impacted her mental and physical health
Hathaway expressed gratitude for modern medical advancements and reflected on the "miracle" of regaining her sight
Anne Hathaway is opening up about her struggles with her vision for the first time.
During an April 22 appearance on The New York Times' podcast Popcast, the Devil Wears Prada 2actress, 43, revealed to hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli that she was "legally blind" in one eye for a decade.
"This is maybe too much information," she quipped before sharing her story. "I was half blind for 10 years."
According to Hathaway, she had an early onset cataract from ages 30 to 40, which the Mayo Clinic defines as a clouding of the lens of the eye, which is typically clear.
"For people who have cataracts, seeing through cloudy lenses is often like looking through a frosty or fogged-up window," the Mayo Clinic explains. "Clouded vision caused by cataracts can make it hard to read, drive a car at night or see the expression on a friend's face."
For the Mother Marystar, the condition impacted her vision "so much that I was basically legally blind out of my left eye" — and caused her some severe stress, she said.
"I wound up getting surgery," she shared. "And I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until I could finally see the full spectrum."
"I've calmed down since then," Hathaway added. "I didn't realize it was actually taxing my nervous system."
According to the Mayo Clinic, cataracts are common particularly as people age, but surgery is often required to correct the issue in younger patients.
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Legal blindness is also defined by the Social Security Administration (SSA) as severe vision loss, according to the Cleveland Clinic. A person who is legally blind either has 20/200 or worse eyesight, even with correction, or they have a field of view that’s no more than 20 degrees wide.
"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," the actress continued. "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."
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Anne Hathaway attends SiriusXM's Front Row with the cast of 'The Devil Wears Prada 2'
Credit: Cindy Ord/Getty for SiriusXM
Hathaway has been candid about other aspects of her health in recent weeks.
In an interview with Ellepublished on Thursday, May 21, she spoke for the first time about rumors surrounding whether or not she's undergone recent plastic surgery — and shared that she has a "preference" to "never comment on anything" and "not draw attention" to herself.
"We’re at a time when people feel very confident in assuming what they think is fact, and sometimes what they think is accurate and sometimes it’s not," Hathaway said, after being asked if her tutorial for getting a lifted look through a certain braided hairstyle was her way of shutting down the rumor mill.
"...The speculation has gotten so loud that you do feel the need to just get your truth out there," she continued. "And I’ll probably always wonder, ‘Should I have posted that or not? Should I have just kept going and done the thing that makes me happy and makes me feel more confident on the red carpet?’ But I felt like the conversation was becoming distracting."
“Also, by the way, these are huge medical decisions that people are presuming,” she added. “I wanted to show that like, no, I didn’t make a huge medical decision. It’s just two braids.”
She then confessed, "By the way, the other thing about all this is, I might still get a facelift someday."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
