Claudia Winkleman 'banging into walls' with chronic eye condition

Claudia Winkleman 'banging into walls' with chronic eye condition Newspoint | 14/06/2025 21:39:10

Television personality Claudia Winkleman has opened up about her health struggles, revealing a chronic eye condition left her “never really” able to see her own face in the mirror. The 53-year-old star, who yesterday was awarded an MBE by , has undergone various operations to try to correct her vision.

Previously host has spoken about "how blind" she is as she struggled with myopia, or short-sightedness, for years. In an interview with the How To Fail podcast last November, she explained: "I've always had terrible eyesight, which goes back to the blurriness of the paintings I like and the blurriness of how I really like life to be.

"I've had a couple of operations since then because I was just banging into walls. But now I wear lenses or glasses or whatever." She continued: "A lit candle and everything is just a bit fuzzy around the outside.

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“I was born, I think, with minus 15, so I've never really been able to see my face. It's all guesswork.

"But everything is ish, it's just a vague idea, which is how I'd like to live. I don't want to live in 'perfect land'. I want to live in 'fuzzy '.

"If there's perfect here — people who want things to look good and ordered and alphabetised and organised — and then there's the other end, I'm past the other end. I like irregular and ramshackle and messy. Just look at the way I do my eye make-up. I'm not very good at neat."

As reported by , she admitted that she has previously struggled to read an autocue while presenting. She also revealed that her vision problems have changed over time as she went from being short-sighted to long-sighted.

In 2021 she said: “I can't even begin to tell you how blind I am. It's embarrassing. I can't read the autocue. My eyes have deteriorated so badly, I'm not meant to drive. I am doing the wrong job."

In another interview on Gabby Logan's podcast The Mid Point in December, Claudia said: "I've had lens replacement. I've had so many operations on my eyes. I had a lens replacement in my left eye because my astigmatism was so bad. I was minus 16, but that was 14 years ago.

"Then I had a little fiddle with it, but because I was so short-sighted, by fixing it I'm now long-sighted, so I can't really read anymore. I can with glasses—I've got plus 2.5—but I can't read The Bee Sting with those glasses and that light."

Yesterday (June 13), Claudia was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours alongside her co-host, Tess Daly.

“I am incredibly grateful to receive this honour,” Claudia said. “It’s a real privilege to work with extraordinarily talented people and I have only got this because of them.

“So this is for the , the traitors and the faithful, for pianos and for the cha cha. I will buy a hat and am taking my mum. I am ridiculously lucky and will celebrate with Tess by doing a paso doble.”