Reggie Bird’s blind prognosis brings Matty J to tears

Reggie Bird is legally blind but trolls have accused her of faking her disability. Here is what you need to know.

Australia’s favourite reality star Reggie Bird has spoken of the online bullying she’s copped by people accusing her of faking blindness.

The two-time Big Brother Australia winner is legally blind and suffers from both retinitis pigmentosa, a rare degenerative eye disease that causes sever vision impairment, and stage two Usher Syndrome, which causes deafness and hearing loss.

Reggie Bird and Matty J embrace following an emotional chat to air on I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! tonight. Picture: Supplied

“I posted a video (on social media) of me dancing and (it was), ‘how can she be dancing, I thought she was blind’,” the mother of two said in a scene to play out in tonight’s episode.

“People need to be educated that blindness is a spectrum.

“Not everyone has to have the big black glasses and sit at home and not do anything. That is what people have in their heads.

“There is such a misunderstanding about blindness. Because I try and keep going all the time, sometimes you get knocked down because you try to keep going.”

I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here star Reggie Bird says people need to be educated that blindness is a spectrum. Supplied by Channel 10.

I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here star Matty J Johnson asked Reggie about her fears around being blind. Picture: Supplied.

Bird, 50, is one of 12 contestants competing on the new season of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!

She opened up in the conversation with fellow contestant Matty ‘J’ Johnson, who asked if she was scared of the day she won’t be able to see anything at all.

Currently, she has described her vision as like “looking through a straw”.

“I think I reckon I will probably change when it is all totally gone, I won’t be able to do as much as what I do now,” she explained.

Matty J was reduced to tears after an emotional chat with Reggie on I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!. Picture: Supplied

Reggie told her I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! camp mates her worst fear was not being able to see her son and daughter again. Picture: Supplied

“I never know if it is my last day of when I will see again. That day is going to come, and that is why I am so blessed to be here, to enjoy and see all of this stuff and chuck it in the memory bank, to make the most of it.”

She added that the fear of not seeing her son and daughter again is the worst part.

To that, Johnson broke down to tears.

“Knowing what Reggie has gone through, she is a mum who is afraid of never being able to see her kids again because she is going blind,” he said.

“All of a sudden, my struggles seem so insignificant of what she is going through.”

Originally published as Reggie Bird’s blind prognosis brings Matty J to tears