Goldie Hawn has been lighting up our screens for decades and she still brings that same sparkle wherever she goes. Recently though she opened up about dealing with cataracts which got a lot of people talking especially after that sweet moment at the Oscars with Andrew Garfield.
Goldie and her longtime love Kurt Russell have built this incredible life together in Hollywood that feels like something out of a storybook. Everyone saw it when Andrew Garfield presented an award with her at the 2025 Oscars. He got emotional sharing how much his late mom loved Goldie and how she brought joy into her life. Then Goldie turned to him and admitted she could not read the teleprompter because of her cataracts. She said it straight out “I’m completely blind. I am I’ve got the cataracts.”
Getty Images
It was such a vulnerable moment and it really showed how common this issue is as we get older. Cataracts happen when the lens of your eye gets cloudy. At first you might not even notice but over time things get blurry colors look faded and bright lights can feel overwhelming. Reading or driving at night becomes a real challenge for many folks.
Goldie is far from alone in this. Around 17 percent of people worldwide deal with cataracts according to health organizations and in the United States more than half of folks over 80 have them or will develop them. It is just one of those things that comes with aging though it can happen earlier too for different reasons. Goldie was born in 1945 and she has been working in film since the late 1960s so it makes sense that this has come up for her after all these years of shining bright.
Cataracts can show up at any age really. Sometimes babies are born with them or younger people get them from injuries or certain health conditions. The good news is they are very treatable. Surgery to remove the cloudy lens and replace it with a clear one is pretty straightforward. It usually takes under half an hour and doctors use local anesthesia so you are awake but comfortable. Most people see a huge improvement afterward.
A bunch of other famous faces have gone through it as well. The painter Claude Monet had cataracts that affected his work until he got them fixed. Mila Kunis dealt with one in her younger years because of inflammation in her eye and she kept it quiet for a long time. Larry King had surgery later in life and even rocked an eye patch afterward. Savannah Guthrie from the Today show had hers after an eye injury from her son and she was thrilled about getting it done saying it felt like Christmas morning.
It is reassuring to know that something like this does not have to slow you down especially with how far medicine has come. Goldie keeps showing up with her warmth and humor and this little glimpse into her health just makes her feel even more real to all of us who have loved her work over the years.
