Love Island's Ron Hall explains how he went blind in one eye

21 January 2025, 21:00 | Updated: 21 January 2025, 21:21

What happened to Ron Hall's eye? Picture: Instagram

By Abbie Reynolds

What happened to Ron's eye? Love Island's Ron Hall has spoken about going blind in one eye.

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Love Island's Ron Hall was first on the show in 2023 for season 9 where he came second with his now ex-girlfriend Lana Jenkins. Aged 25 at the time, Ron was the shows first-ever partially sighted contestant as he is blind in one eye, something he has joked about on Love Island All Stars.

Two years after his first Love Island stint, Ron returned for All Stars as a bombshell alongside Grace Jackson from series 11. Entering the villa for a second time, Ron had his sights on the likes of Gabby Allen and Kaz Crossley but with one of his eyes a completely different colour to the other it's no surprise viewers have been asking what happened to him.

The unique islander opened up about his disability before heading into the villa the first time, explaining how it happened when he was just eight years old playing football.

Ron Hall is in Love Island All Stars 2024. Picture: ITV

What happened to Love Island's Ron's eye?

Ron has been blind in one eye since childhood. Explaining how it happened the Essex lad told the Express: "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, [another player] went up with his foot and basically knocked me out."

He said that the kick detached his retina and at first he was told it "should be fine" but, after a series of procedures, his sight couldn't be saved.

"[I] had a load of operations, 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," he explained.

"I can't even remember how many operations [I had] between a year and two years, probably 10 plus." The Love Island star said that by operation "six or seven" he was told he wouldn't get his sight back.

Ron Hall is back on Love Island. Picture: Instagram

He went on to detail the pain he experienced until he was around 18 years old, saying: "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 [and] one green."

The All Stars contestant said he has "always" used it to his 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," he started.

"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."

Appearing on Love Island for the second time, one of the boys asked Ron if he thought Ekin-Su was good looking. He joked in response: "Of course, I'm blind, [but] I'm not that blind."