“There is no smile quite like the one that is returned from eyes that once more can see,” declares Sophie, Countess of Wessex. And she would know, having witnessed her little girl’s eyesight battle for all of her 11 young years.
Speaking publicly for the first time about Lady Louise‘s eyesight to UK newspaper the Sunday Express, Sophie reveals that her daughter’s “profound squint” – which causes blurred or double vision – was because of her premature birth in 2003.
Sophie says her daughter’s eyesight is “perfect”.
The Queen’s grand-daughter was born weighing just 4lbs 9oz after an emergency caesarean that was so fast, Prince Edward didn’t even make the birth. Sophie came close to death after losing so much blood.
“Premature babies often have the squints because the eyes are the last thing in the baby package to really be finalised,” Sophie told the newspaper last week while visiting visually impaired children in Doha.
“Her squint was quite profound when she was tiny and it takes time to correct it. You’ve got to make sure one eye doesn’t become more dominant than the other but she’s fine now. Her eyesight is perfect.”
The Countess, 50, said that years of reports that her daughter suffered from exotropia – an eye misalignment in which the eyes turn outward – were “incorrect”.
Lady Louise has made more appearances in public than usual in the past year, in which her squint has evidently improved. Sophie didn’t confirm whether she’d undergone surgery, but would say that Louise “had the squint corrected because cosmetically it was awkward for her”.
Growing up beautifully at 11, Lady Louise is a doting cousin to Savannah Phillips.
Sophie’s revelations about her girl came during a whirlwind trip to Qatar with blindness prevention charity Orbis UK in honor of World Sight Day.
“I have seen sight restored and I can promise you there are few things more rewarding in this world than seeing someone step from the dark into the light,” she said in a moving speech.
Edward and Sophie with Louise and their youngest child James on the balcony at Buckingham Palace.
