Joanna Lumley has revealed that she suffers from face blindness and struggles to recognise people she knows.
Face blindness, also known as ‘Prosopagnosia’, is a disorder that makes you unable to recognise faces you’ve seen before, including those of friends and family.
Speaking recently on the Tracks of My Years podcast with Vernon Kay on BBC Sounds, the actress, 77, opened up on living with the condition, noting that she ‘kisses everybody’ as she can’t always tell who she knows.
Joanna detailed how this condition has ‘followed her’, revealing that she gives herself ‘tests’ to see if she can recall someone’s face in her head after looking at them.
She explained to the radio host: ‘I’ve got this weird thing with faces, I’ve got a face blindness. It’s called Prosopagnosia.
Admission: Joanna Lumley has revealed that she suffers from face blindness and struggles to recognise people she knows (pictured in 2022)
Struggle: Speaking recently on the Tracks of My Years podcast with Vernon Kay on BBC Sounds, the actress, 77, opened up on living with the condition, noting that she ‘kisses everybody’ as she can’t always tell who she knows
‘Which means I can’t tell people from faces. So unless I know who they are, I don’t know who they are.’
Vernon, 49, then apologised for being unaware, adding he ‘didn’t know that was a thing’.
With Joanna continuing: ‘It’s a weird thing. Stephen Fry’s got it too. This is why I kiss everybody.
‘I kissed you today. A, because I wanted to. B, because I actually didn’t know whether I knew you or not. I can’t tell.’
Enquiring further, Vernon then asked: ‘Are you facially blind then?’
To which Joanna replied: ‘I have to know who people are, I have to know in advance. I always say “please tell me who’s going to be there” then I can match the name to the thing.
‘I mean, lots of people say “oh but you meet so many people”, it’s not to do with that, it’s completely different from that. It’s followed me and I never knew what it was.
‘And I’d try a test. I’d look at somebody and then I would shut my eyes and see if I could see their face in my head. And I couldn’t.’
Difficulties: Joanna detailed how this condition has ‘followed her’, revealing that she gives herself ‘tests’ to see if she can recall someone’s face in her head after looking at them
Interview: Vernon, 49, then apologised for being unaware, adding he ‘didn’t know that was a thing’
Condition: ‘I have to know who people are, I have to know in advance. I always say “please tell me who’s going to be there” then I can match the name to the thing’
Speaking further about how Prosopagnosia has affected her, she shared: ‘I’ve been at parties where I’ve literally said “do you want another glass of wine?”
‘Gone off, got the glass of wine, come back and I don’t know who I’ve been talking to, I can’t see who I’ve been talking to because their face hasn’t registered.
‘Isn’t that weird. Sometimes I don’t know whether I’ve seen that person that day or whether I should’ve seen them.
‘I kiss so many strangers, they go “get off!” And I go “look, do I know you? Was I married to you?’ Who are you?” I literally don’t know!’
As well as failing to recognise people, Prosopagnosia can also result in you being unable to identify yourself in pictures or the mirror, or feeling like you know complete strangers.
Tough time: ‘I mean, lots of people say “oh but you meet so many people”, it’s not to do with that, it’s completely different from that. It’s followed me and I never knew what it was’
Confusion: ‘I kiss so many strangers, they go “get off!” And I go “look, do I know you? Was I married to you?’ Who are you?” I literally don’t know!’
Last year, Brad Pitt detailed his experience with the condition, admitting that ‘nobody believes’ him when he talks about it.
Those with the disorder may cope by using alternative ways to recognise people, such as remembering the way they walk, or their hairstyle, voice or clothing.
It is thought to be the result of abnormalities, damage, or impairment in the right fusiform gyrus – a fold in the brain that appears to coordinate facial perception and memory.
Prosopagnosia can result from stroke, traumatic brain injury, or some neurodegenerative diseases, but in some cases it is present at birth.