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Bowie persistently reinvented himself throughout his career with personas like Ziggy Stardust reaching iconic status. But one of his most distinctive features – one blue eye and one brown – had been with him since he was 14. As soon as his track Space Oddity, from 1969, hit number one of the charts, fans noticed how his eyes were different colours.
However, most assumed he had heterochromia, where someone has different coloured irises, usually from birth.
In most cases this does not affect vision and is benign.
Yet, Bowie’s mismatched eyes stemmed from a violent event.
He was actually born with two blue eyes, and it was not until a bust-up with a friend that his appearance drastically changed.
According to The Cut back in 2016, “his eyes were the product not of genes but a teenage fistfight that resulted in anisocoria, a condition in which a person’s eyes have different-size pupils”.
The article continued: “In the spring of 1962, Bowie got into a fight with his school pal – and, later, lifetime artistic partner – George Underwood.”
Bowie later confessed to biographer Mark Spitz how the situation occurred.
The singer explained: “When I was 14 I fell in love with a girl. I was crazy about her.
“Only trouble was, my best mate [Underwood] had a bit of a soft spot for her too, but I was the winner.
“I moved in before he’d even made up his mind about how to approach her.
“Next day I was at school boasting to my mate about what a Casanova I was and he became terribly annoyed. In fact he threw a punch at me.
“It caught me in the eye and I stumbled against a wall and onto my knees.
“At first he thought I was kidding.
“It wasn’t a very hard punch but obviously caught me at a rather odd angle.”
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Apparently, “Underwood’s fingernail had scratched the surface of Bowie’s eyeball, paralysing the muscles that contract the iris”.
Bowie was subsequently hospitalised for four months and developed anisocoria where one pupil is permanently dilated.
The singer told Mr Spitz: “For quite a while I was very embarrassed about it.
“Although I could see very well out of the eye, it made me self-conscious.”
George Underwood told The Tab a slightly different version of the story back in 2016.
He said the violent altercation took place at his 15th birthday party.
He explained: “One of the reasons I had the party was because both of us fancied this girl.
“It was a ploy to talk to her.
“Before she left I asked if I could meet her at her youth club on Wednesday at 7pm.
“Just before I was able to meet her, David phoned me and said she didn’t want to meet me, she wanted to go out with him – which was a lie.
“I went down to the youth club later and her friends said she’d been waiting the whole hour for me!”
Out of rage, Underwood punched his friend in an attempt to give him a black eye – only for it to backfire and leave Bowie with permanently damaged eyesight.
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