Dame Judi Dench told her close friend Sir Ian McKellen she "daren't look at the future" because of the severity of her vision loss during a poignant episode of her documentary series, Tea with Judi Dench. The 91-year-old actress, who was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 2012, was answering a question from Sir Ian about whether she focuses on the present or the past.
"I live in the present because I daren't look at the future, because my eyesight now is so bad, it's so bad," she said. Disclosing the extent of her condition, she added: "I can't see any details of your face."
"Oh, darling," Sir Ian responded compassionately. "If you want to feel my face, it's there," he said, taking her hand and guiding it to his face before tenderly kissing her hand.
Previous admissions about her condition
This is not the first time Dame Judi has discussed her condition with Sir Ian. In December 2025, the pair reunited for the 50th anniversary of the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1976–77 staging of Macbeth. During a joint interview on ITV News, she said that although she could recognise him, "I can't recognise anybody now... I can't see the television, [and I] can't see to read".
Sir Ian joked with his friend, asking: "Do you go up to total strangers and say, 'Lovely to see you again?'" She replied: "Yes, sometimes."
Sir Ian reflects on coming out
During the episode, the discussion arose while Sir Ian was reflecting on coming out as gay and how he wished he had confided in his parents earlier. He described how he had discovered letters penned by his father, one of which he had received on his 21st birthday.
"I was at university, not living at home anymore," he explained to Dame Judi. "He was only saying he loved me and I had done well and he would always be looking out for me, I think. Of course, looking back now, I knew I was gay at 21, it was the biggest thing in my life, really, the discovery and acceptance of that. And one of the first [people] I should have talked to about it would have been dad, but I didn't. He was sending me this letter full of love, and I wonder, looking back, was he saying 'Is there anything you want to talk to me about?' I wonder?"
Sir Ian was in his late 40s when he first came out to his sister, Jean. "Her first reaction was 'Oh, Ian, I have known that for ages, and I have never wanted to talk to you about it because I thought you didn't want to'," Sir Ian recalled. "What a waste of time, and my dad was long since dead, and my mother before that. I have few regrets in my life, but that's one of them, that I didn't talk," he confessed.
Sir Ian publicly came out as gay during a live radio debate discussing Section 28, a contentious piece of legislation put forward by Margaret Thatcher's government that sought to ban local authorities "intentionally promoting homosexuality or publishing material with the intention of promoting homosexuality".
Where to watch
Tea with Judi Dench is streaming on Sky Arts, Freeview, and streaming service NOW.
