Glenn Beck: Doctor Says I May Go Blind Within Next Year

Fox News Channel personality Glenn Beck told an audience that he has been diagnosed with macular dystrophy, which might leave him blind.

During his "American Revival" event in Salt Lake City on Saturday, the 46-year-old host told more than 6,000 fans that he went to a doctor because he was having trouble focusing his eyes.

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"He did all kinds of tests and he said, 'you have macular dystrophy ... you could go blind in the next year. Or, you might not,'" Beck said.

Though Beck struggled to hold back tears at certain points in his speech, the TV host kept up a brave face by cracking a few jokes.

"I know what my wife looks like. I know what my children look like. I have a great imagination," he said. "But I love to read. And I thought to myself in that time, 'I'm too darn lazy to learn brail.'"

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Beck also discussed the disease -- a genetic eye disorder that can cause progressive vision loss -- on Monday night's episode of his Fox News show.

"I don't know what tomorrow will brings ... c'est la vie. And that is the way I feel about it," Beck said. "I don't own my life, and I certainly don't own my eyes. If that's the price of admission, I'm grateful that I had them — I don't want to lose them — but I'm grateful that I had them. And I fought enough stuff in my life to know that everything works out exactly the way it's supposed to be. It will. Everything that happens to us is for our own good."

A Fox News spokeswoman deferred any comment to Beck's personal publicist, Matthew Hiltzik, who said there are no plans to change his radio or TV show. "I think it's significantly far off that we'd deal with it at that point," Hiltzik told TVGuide.com.