Natalya has revealed that she was legally blind in her left eye, a condition that she finally resolved through surgery over the summer. The WWE star spoke with Dariel Figueroa for Sports Illustrated and revealed that she had astigmatism and was able to finally have the condition resolved through an EVO ICL implant surgery over the summer. You can see highlights from the conversation below:
On keeping the condition private: “I don’t think even really anybody in WWE knew about it because I kept it pretty secretive. I was born with astigmatism… I was legally blind in my left eye.”
On not having a solution to fix it for years: “They didn’t have the technology to fix it. (I) Didn’t qualify for LASIK because of how my eye was shaped. At that time, the procedure that they had for (a) lens implant, because of the shape of my eye, I didn’t qualify for it.”
On having issues with using a contact lens to mitigate the condition: “I was like screw it. I’m not going to wear the contact lens. I’m literally just going to take it out and just let my right eye do all the work.”
On finally getting the surgery to fix it over the summer: “I had a little time off this summer in between my contract re-signing. And I was like, if I had this time off, I’m going to ask WWE if I can get this fixed because I went and found an eye doctor. Newsom Eye in Tampa. They had the technology that they didn’t have before… They even strengthened my right eye. I had surgery in my right eye to get (it) even stronger so that my right eye (and) my left eye are totally in sync with each other.”
