Bill Cosby: Actor Is Now Completely Blind, Suffers From Progressive Eye Disease


At possibly the worst time of his life and while engaged in a legal battle over the alleged sexual abuse of 50 women, Bill Cosby has gone completely blind. Apparently, the actor suffers from a degenerative eye condition called keratoconus, a progressive eye disease that causes deformation of the cornea and visual distortions.

[Photo by Michael Bryant/Getty Images Pool]

Bill Cosby is now “completely blind” and is “in his own personal hell,” says the New York Post through their publication Page Six, citing sources close to the head of The Cosby Show. The source claims that Cosby sees nothing and is confined to his Pennsylvania home. According to the report, the actor — who was once known as “America’s Dad” — is suffering at home with only the company of his loyal wife, Camille. Page Six speculates that some of his alleged victims have mercy on him now that he is going through this ordeal.

“His alleged victims may take some solace in the fact that he’s in his own personal hell. He has been suffering from a degenerative eye disease and is completely blind… All his Hollywood friends have turned their backs on him,” says the source.

For some time now, Cosby’s vision has been steadily declining. In December of last year, Monique Pressley, one of his lawyers, talked about the actor’s eyesight.

“His current health status is that he’s a 78-year-old blind man who they’ve chosen to be charged. That’s not a defense of a crime, that’s just a fact,” Pressley was quoted as saying.

According to the New York Daily News, Pressley also blamed the media and court of public opinion for swirling criticism about the 79-year-old actor.

“The court of law doesn’t run like the media does,” Pressley explained. “Any person who has a picture or a story or something that they’d like to say, if they’re saying it about the right person, and Bill Cosby is the right person to say something about, then they can air that grievance, and have been doing so for the past year.”

Although sources with knowledge on the matter allege that Bill Cosby is blind, some aren’t entirely convinced that this is the case. However, a 2015 defamation lawsuit that Cosby filed against model Beverly Johnson, one of his sexual assault accusers, notes that “Mr. Cosby has suffered from a degenerative eye condition for years, which has steadily worsened,” and that “for over a year” the entertainer has been “legally and functionally blind.”

Several media outlets also reported that Cosby’s right eye appeared cloudy and gray in his police mug shot.

“His right eye looks like he might have had a cornea transplant,” said ophthalmologist Christopher Rapuano. “From his police photo, Cosby could have a cataract or glaucoma. The left eye looks good and clear.”

A judge ruled this month that Cosby will be brought to trial on charges of sexual abuse at a date yet to be determined. Cosby faces three counts of rape. One of them is a 2004 case in which Andrea Constand, an employee of Temple University, accused the comic of sexually abusing her. Constand was the first of more than 50 women who have accused Cosby of sexual abuse. On Monday, a judge ruled that Cosby can not sue Constand for breach of contract. She claims he drugged and raped her in 2004 for allegedly violating a confidentiality agreement she had signed.

[Photo by Michael Bryant/Getty Images Pool]

Allegations of Cosby’s sexual abuse date back to the 1960s, however, they are too old to be subject to criminal prosecution.

[Photo by Getty Images Pool]

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