Anne Hathaway was 'legally blind' in left eye for a decade after contracting early cataract

Anne Hathaway has candidly spoken up about her long-term vision struggles, as she explained how a decade long battle with cataract left her ‘legally blind’ in one eye before corrective surgery.

The 43 year old Devil Wears Prada 2 actress, made the surprising admission on the latest episode of the the New York Times' podcast Popcast when she revealed to hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli just how troubling a time it was for her.

"This is maybe too much information," she quipped before sharing her story. "I was half blind for 10 years.”

The actress then went on to explain how she had been diagnosed with early onset cataract from ages 30 to 40, a condition in which broadly involves a clouding of the lens of the eye.

It’s typically a condition that affects older adult, with cataract extremely common in senior citizens but in Hathaway’s case the condition had arisen several decades earlier than she might have ever anticipated.

According to the Mayo Clinic ,”People who have cataracts, seeing through cloudy lenses is often like looking through a frosty or fogged-up window,”

They then went on to add, ”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.”

This means that for the space of around 10 years - essentially a quarter of her entire life - Hathaway was struggling to see even basic everyday essentials in one of her eyes.

For almost a quarter of her life, Hathaway was 'legally blind' in one eye (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)

Things were so bad, the Mother Mary actress recalled, that she was ‘basically legally blind out of her left eye’.

In order to qualify as legally blind, the Social Security Administration (SSA) states that a person must have a severe visual impairment equating to either 20/200 or worse eyesight even with correction, or they have a field of view that’s no more than 20 degrees wide.

"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.”

"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.”

Hathaway’s admission is just one of several frank comments she has made about her health in recent weeks, with the Ella Enchanted star having also addressed recent rumours of plastic surgery in an interview with Elle published on Thursday, May 21.

During the interview she specifically responded to recent allegations that she had gone under the knife, as she shut down the speculation by responding 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,

"...The speculation has gotten so loud that you do feel the need to just get your truth out there," she continued.

Directly referencing a video in which her makeup artist showed how to get a DIY facelift in minutes simply by braiding her hair, Anne continued: "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 did however then cryptically add: "By the way, the other thing about all this is, I might still get a facelift someday."