Richard Madeley: 'Judy nearly went blind'

Richard Madeley has revealed that his wife Judy Finnigan nearly went blind two years ago.

The presenter, who recently challenged claims that Finnigan is an alcoholic, insisted that the 61-year-old has been suffering from illness for some time.

He told the Sunday Mirror: "She had a double cataract operation and had artificial lenses put in. At a stroke, it banished all her sight problems. Suddenly, she had fantastic sparkly vision again.

"There was a slight possibility that the retina might detach but after nine months we assumed she had made a full recovery.

"So we went straight to the consultant. He said, 'thank God you've come now'. The retina was detached. There is blindness in Judy's family. Her uncle went blind. Judy has been really worried about it.

Madeley also spoke about the details of his former TV co-host's knee problems.

"Six years ago Judy was sidestepping our sleeping daughter Chloe on a plane coming back from America and she ruptured the cruciate ligament," he said.

"She had an operation for that about a year ago. It's slowly getting better but she's having to do double physio for both knees. So she's still a bit wobbly And I'd just like to say that if you see me helping my wife to walk, this is the bloody reason.

"Under the circumstances you can understand why I was so upset when it was suggested Judy had been drinking. The poor woman's been through the wars. She's had bad eyes and bad knees, not bad boozing habits. I'm very anxious to set the record straight on this."