Anne-Kat. Hærland’s Experience with Retinitis Pigmentosa on The Celebrity Farm: A Candid Interview

TANGEN (Dagbladet): The participants in the next round of “The celebrity farm” were released this week, and among them we find former TV queen Anne-Kat. Hærland (51).

In 2016, it became known that the comedian lives with the eye disease Retinitis pigmentosa, a disease that causes the cells on the retina to die at a slow pace. It leads to narrowed vision, and the chance of becoming completely blind is real, according to the report NHI.no.

When Dagbladet meets Hærland inside Li gård on day two of “Farmen kjendis”, the 51-year-old makes no secret of the fact that she enters the reality program with a clear handicap.

– Worse

– Yes, it’s a disability, says Anne-Kat. Härland seriously, before she continues:

– It is an incurable progressive disease, so it only gets worse and worse every time you are asked how it is going. It’s like asking someone with incurable cancer the same thing. That’s the way it goes.

– Was quite difficult for me

The former “Nytt på nytt” star does not hide that her eyesight has gradually deteriorated over the years, and that she struggles more than ever to find her way around.

– I see your shoulders and your head, but that’s all. The rest is… Nothing. I have to move my head a lot to get the whole picture around me. I just have to think that’s what I live with and have lived with for 30 years.

The “Farm celebrity” participant is clearly impressed when she talks about the topic. Immediately she also gets tears in her eyes.

– I can hardly talk about it much, because then I almost start to cry, she says quietly.

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Take precautions

Nevertheless: Hærland tries her best to think positively, and to focus on taking in all the experiences she can. She says that the participation in “Farmen kendis” comes at a perfect time considering the time of year.

– Because this is the brightest time of the year. It is the darkness that is most difficult for me. I could not take part in anything that had taken place in the winter, because then I see far too little.

Fortunately, both the production and the other participants have been informed of the situation, so they are taking precautions.

– This means that people do not put things on the ground and such. In addition, I have learned where everything is. What I dreaded, in a sense, was coming to unfamiliar surroundings. At home, I actually feel like I don’t see badly at all, because I know where everything is. It works automatically, she explains.

She admits that she was “extremely tired” on the first day at “The Celebrity Farm”.

– Because I had to memorize the whole place. It is important for me to know where this the flower bed is, in case I come running towards it. And then I have to remember the two pots over there. And that wagon over there, Hærland says as she points.

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– Terrifying

The renowned comedian has, for better or for worse, been part of the limelight for a number of years. She had the greatest star status when she was part of the NRK success “Nytt på nytt” in the early 2000s.

The 51-year-old joined the program in 2007.

She herself describes her own career as an adventurous journey.

– When I turned 50, I thought that I have to be 60! So I’ve had a really good time. I think: “My God, what I have been allowed to experience”. I am so grateful for that. When I die one day I will think: “What a ride”. I don’t have that many possessions, but all the more experiences, she says with a smile.

But she admits that life in the public eye has also had a downside.

– The limelight is also a bit frightening, and that is why I have tended to disappear for several years at a time. I go away and just take breaks. That’s really the only thing I need, that is to experience new things. And then I like to be to myself a lot when I’m at home, says an open-hearted Anne-Kat. Härland to Dagbladet.