Love Island 2023 star Ron Hall has recalled the horror accident that left him blind in one eye.
The 25-year-old financial advisor, who hails from Essex, lost the sight in his right eye in a footballing accident when he was younger.
Ahead of entering the Love Island villa in South Africa this weekend for the show’s ninth series, Ron opened up about the awful incident.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, he explained: “When I was eight, I was playing football. I was in a match and the ball basically came over and as I went down to head the ball, he [the other player] went up with his foot and basically knocked me out.”
“Detached my retina, went to the hospital the next day and they basically said ‘look, detached retina blah blah, should be fine.’
“Had a load of operations but I don’t know what happened with it all but basically it became very severe and things [with] the operations you know either weren’t working or it was too severe, or we didn’t pick it up quick enough.”
“I can’t even remember how many operations between a year and two years, probably 10+.”
“I’ve got like a silicone oil in the back of it, I’ve got like a buckle in the back as well. And basically, by like operation six or seven they were like ‘No, you’re not going to get your site back’,” he revealed.
“So for me, it was all about trying to make it look as normal as possible. Obviously, I was a kid at the time and I didn’t really want pain but the problem was, probably from the age of eight to 18 it was extremely painful.”
“Things like UV light, sunlight, and it was almost like someone poking you in the eye all the time. But for some reason, when I was 18/19 the pain just stopped.”
“You know I could open my eyes properly. I can look out into the sun with no sunglasses and be absolutely fine. It doesn’t water and I’ve got one blue, well one blue, one green.”
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“I’ve always used it to my advantage. I always say there are so many people that are worse off than me, obviously, it’s a disability, right, we’re calling it what it is.”
“But there are so many people worse off than me, it doesn’t impact me as much as someone else. So you have to look at the positive side of things.”
Ron also confessed people used to call him “pirate” and “Popeye” when he was a child, but he laughed off the teasing by referring to himself as “Ron one eye”.
“So for me, the fact that I was always making jokes, you become very comfortable with anyone who says anything. I’ve never been impacted by bullying, obviously,” he continued.
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“I think when I was younger as a bit more self-conscious, especially when it came down to taking pictures because it used to close up a little bit.”
“There are things that I always pick up like anyone about their own body when you look in the mirror, you pick certain things but whether people notice it or not and if they do it doesn’t really doesn’t bother me at all.”
“Hopefully people can see that I’m still myself, still confident, still very you know my own person with it.”
When asked what he’ll bring to the villa, Ron said: “Fun and charisma. I just want to be naturally myself in there, have good times and make memories. I think people will enjoy my company.”
“I’m the most genuine person you’ll meet. I’m genuine, caring and I’m a nice person – which you don’t find these days.”
The ninth season of Love Island will return to our screens on January 16th, with Maya Jama taking over as host.
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