Hidden signs of cataracts no-one can afford to ignore as cases of sight-robbing disease rise in under 50s – and Goldie Hawn reveals she’s going BLIND due to the condition

The hidden signs of a leading cause of blindness have been highlighted after Hollywood legend Goldie Hawn’s shocking health reveal at the 2025 Academy Awards.

The 79-year-old Oscar winner — presenting with Andrew Garfield — was forced to stop partway through her presentation speech due to being unable to read the teleprompter.

Pausing mid-sentence she turned to Garfield and said: ‘OK. Sweetheart, can you read that. I can’t read that.’

She continued: ‘I’m completely blind. I mean, I am!’, before revealing the cause of her vision problems: ‘Cataracts’. 

Cataracts form when tissues in the lens, the small transparent disc inside your eye that helps you focus on what you see, begin to break down forming clumps of protein. 

These clumps become larger over time causing vision to become blurry or misty, like looking through frosted glass, before eventually progressing to blindness.

While age is the biggest factor for cataracts certain lifestyle choices also increase the risk of people developing them earlier.

Some leading British eye specialists have even reported a worrying increase in cases among people in their 40s and 50s — 20 years earlier than is typical.

While blurred or cloudy vision is the most well-known symptom of cataracts, it isn’t the only one.

Other possible signs include changes in colour perception, with tones looking faded or with a yellow or brownish tinge. 

Double vision — looking at one object but seeing two images — is another potential sign of the problem. 

How you perceive light can also be a hidden sign of the condition. 

People with developing cataracts can start to see a halo, a circle of light, around bright light sources such as car headlights or streetlights.

This can also be accompanied by finding bright lights dazzling or uncomfortable to look at.

A worsening of a person’s ability to see in the dark is one of the most common early signs of cataracts.

Other little-known signs of cataracts is having frequent changes in your prescription, or feeling like your glasses are constantly dirty and need cleaning. 

Cataract symptoms can make activities like reading or driving increasingly difficult for sufferers and can have a massive impact on their work and independence. 

Eye health experts also warn that, as cataracts typically develop slowly, people may not notice the potential signs at first, which is why regular eye tests are important. 

While cataracts often develop in both a person’s eyes they can do so at different rates, meaning one eye may have worse vision than the other. 

Most cases of cataracts in the UK develop among the over 65s, however there are some factors that can increase the risk of people developing them earlier.

These include regularly drinking excessive alcohol, long-term sun damage to eyes from not wearing sunglasses, smoking, poor diet, long-term use of steroids and certain health conditions like diabetes.

Some experts suggest rising obesity rates, leading to more patients developing diabetes, may be a reason for the increase in younger adults needing treatment for cataracts.

Surgery is considered the only effective way of treating cataracts. 

This surgery — usually done under local anaesthetic, meaning the patient is awake during the procedure — replaces the eye’s cloudy lens with an artificial one.

Patients normally go home the same day, though it can take the eye up to six weeks to fully heal.  

Cataract surgery is one of the most common elective procedures carried out in the NHS, with about 400,000 performed in England every year. 

In Britain, cataracts account for more than one in three cases of vision impairment in patients over the age of 75.

About 2.5 million patients aged 65 and over in England and Wales are thought to have some form of vision impairment caused by them.

Globally, an estimated 12million patients are thought to be technically blind due to cataracts.