Can a person have two differently coloured eyes?
Can a person have two differently coloured eyes?
Many people have seen in various cats or dogs that they’ll have one eye that is a darker colour than the other. What you may not know is that people can also have two differently coloured eyes. It is much rarer in humans but it still happens. When it happens, the condition is called heterochromia iridum (in Latin: hetero = different, chromia = colour, iridum = iris).
What causes heterochromia?
Our eye colour is determined by how much of the pigment melanin is in our iris. Light coloured eyes (i.e. blue eyes) have less melanin and dark eyes (i.e. brown eyes) have more melanin. In people with heterochromia, one eye has less melanin than the other. Sometimes the difference can be large (one blue eye, one brown), other times the difference can be less noticeable (one light brown, one dark brown).
Most cases of heterochromia are caused by genetics, a disease or syndrome, or an injury. If you notice that your infant or child has eyes of different colours, you should take them for an eye exam. It could be that their eyes are completely normal other than the colouring, but it could be a sign of an underlying disease. Your eye doctor will check for signs of any disease. If no disease is found or suspected, then heterochromatic eyes do not need any special attention from an eye doctor. It can just be one more thing that makes your child unique!
Athletes/Celebrities with Heterochromia
There are a few famous people with heterochromia. Here's some interesting things they had to say about the condition.
Kate Bosworth - This actress from "Blue Crush" and "Superman Returns" has had heterochromia from birth and finds it can actually cause difficulties when applying makeup. "You know, I actually notice it more when the light is very gray," she confessed. "Quite honestly, it's more of a maintenance thing. I find that if I wear eye make-up it comes down my face quickly. It's easier to maintain a mouth than an eye."
Shawn Horcoff - Professional hockey player and former captain of the Edmonton Oilers says heterochromia has never affected his ability to play hockey at a high level. "Both my parents wear glasses, but my eyesight is better than 20/20. So I don't know how that happened," he shared to a Vancouver Sun reporter. "[I've been told] that if you have two different coloured eyes, over time one will become more dominant. But every year I get the vision test and I'm OK."
Christopher Walken - The laundry list of great films that this actor is famous for is too long to list here and while he hasn't said much about his heterochromia, he has admitted that he worked as a lion tamer when he was 15 and that he has managed to incorporate a little dance number into almost all of his acting roles, whether they were scripted or not. That has nothing to do with his eyes, but we thought it was pretty cool.
Mila Kunis - This actress from "That 70's Show" and "Black Swan" was not born with heterochromia. As a teenager, she started having constant, painful headaches which would not go away. Eventually she her doctor diagnosed her with iritis, a condition that causes inflammation in the iris of the eye. After a number of episodes of this, the color of her left iris became darker.
David Bowie - The musician David Bowie is a bit of a special case when it comes to heterochromia. He was born with blue eyes but in 1962 he got in a fight with his longtime friend. His friend's punch damaged Bowie's left eye. His pupil is now stuck in a semi-dilated state which gives his left eye a brownish-green colour. This is not true heterochromia (there is no difference in melanin between eyes) but it gives the appearance of heterochromia.
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