Stevie Wonder has heard the rumors, and he’s got a message for the people: “You know the truth.”
During a stop on his “Love, Light and Song” U.K. tour in Cardiff, Wales, the 25-time Grammy Award winner took a moment to directly address the long-standing speculation that he’s not actually blind. “I must say to all of you, something that I was thinking -- ‘When did I want to let the world know this?’... But I wanted to say it right now,” Wonder told the crowd, as seen in a video captured by a fan. “You know there have been rumors about me seeing and all that? But seriously, you know the truth.”
And then he set the record straight. “Truth is, shortly after my birth, I became blind,” he continued. “Now, that was a blessing because it’s allowed me to see the world in the vision of truth, of sight. See people in the spirit of them, not how they look. Not what color they are, but what color is their spirit?”
Stevie Wonder, whose real name is Stevland Hardaway Morris, was born six weeks early with retinopathy of prematurity, according to a Biography report, which also states, “Receiving too much oxygen in the incubator likely worsened the condition for the tiny baby, leaving him blind.”
His outlook, however, was shaped by faith and family. In a 2024 episode of “The Wonder of Stevie” podcast, the singer reflected on how his mother, Lula Mae Hardaway, struggled in the early days. “My mother went through the different things, and so my experience with that was deep,” he shared with journalist Wesley Morris and former President Barack Obama.
Wonder recalled telling her, “Mama, you shouldn’t cry, you’re making my head hurt.” Even then, his response was rooted in hope: “Maybe God has something for me that’s bigger than all this,” he said. “History proved that true.”