AN emotional Michael Owen has revealed his son’s eye condition has left him so blind he has to ‘cut his food for him’.
The former England footballer has four children with his wife Louise, including son James, 20.
James was diagnosed with Stargardt disease – a degeneration of his retina, and in 2019, Michael revealed his son was “clinically blind”.
During an appearance on the Great Company podcast this week, Michael, 46, opened up to Jamie Laing about James and his condition.
He said: “I look at it and think, do you know what, every time we sit at a restaurant, he’s by my side.
“Because I read him the menu and I need to cut his food, because he can’t.
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“Whenever we’re watching racing, he’s by my side because I’m giving a commentary.
“Whenever he wants to go…he needs his dad to take him. I’m his taxi driver.”
Michael continued: “I get to spend three times more time with my lad because he’s got an eye condition.
“Now I might be a selfish b*****d but I think that is…I love it and I wouldn’t want it any different.
“And of course I’d give my eyes to him in an instant, if we could swap, of course I would. But let’s take the positive, he is so bright, he just doesn’t sit back and pity himself.
“In fact it’s quite the opposite, he gets out there and he laughs at himself.”
While Michael is clearly proud of James and his other children, daughters Gemma, Jessica and Emily, he also admitted on the podcast that he doesn’t tell them he loves them.
He said: “I never ever tell my kids I love them. I don’t say anything like that.
“I just assume my actions would show them that I love them. It’s a bad thing. I think most of us are like that.”
The Amass case is a strange one. A natural left-back in United’s academy, who did well in a loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday last season, then got injured straight after switching to Norwich in the winter window, Amass, 19, impressed many observers with his performances during pre-season, when he shadowed Shaw.
Yet, for some reason, United were willing to let him leave.
In the summer of 2024, then manager Erik ten Hag opted not to pick the teenager in his squad for the Community Shield, even though Amass had given a creditable account of himself up against Mo Salah in a pre-season game in the United States just a week earlier.
Ten Hag felt, physically, Amass was not at the level required. In theory, the two years that have elapsed since then should have made the defender bigger and stronger.
There have been multiple expressions of interest in Amass. Even heading into deadline day, his omission from United’s Premier League 2 game against Leicester on Monday reinforced a widespread belief he would leave, probably on loan.
But that has not happened and it is not clear what his role will be within the senior squad.
The willingness to view Mazraoui as a left-back option was helped by the performances of Leny Yoro in pre-season.
Signed from Lille for £52m in 2024 as a central defender, Carrick used Yoro mainly as a right-back this summer.
Against Ipswich on Sunday, that was the slot Yoro was introduced into as a replacement for Dalot, at the same time as Mazraoui was coming on for Shaw.
At just 20, Yoro has plenty to learn about the right-back role. However, he has pace, is strong and is good on the ball. United supporters only have to look at how Josko Gvardiol has adapted to the full-back role at Manchester City after signing as a central defender to realise switching positions can have a positive outcome.
That is the calculated risk United have taken.
What they absolutely did not want to do, having taken a hardline stance all summer on the fees they were willing to pay, and a refusal to spend more than they thought a player was worth, was end up making a signing like Alex Telles, or Matteo Darmian, or Sergio Reguilon, who all arrived in recent years but were evidently short of the standard required.
It makes sense. It is probably the right call.
But that is a view taken away from the emotion of matches and the rollercoaster of results. And the reality is they will be the deciding factor in whether it was a good decision or not.
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MICHAEL Jackson’s daughter Paris has released a moving song tribute on his 68th birthday with the icon’s voice on track.
The singer’s personal new song entitled The Breeze appears to include a private recording featuring the voice of her father.
In the emotional audio, Michael can be heard telling his daughter: “Love you, Paris. I love you, Paris!”
A young Paris is then heard sweetly replying: “I love you.”
Released as a double single on Michael’s birthday, Paris, 28, wrote and recorded two songs which displayed her relationship with him.
She explained on her social account that she is so proud of both tracks and said “It’s not a tribute. It’s not a commemoration.
“It’s not a demonstration of any kind. It is a letter. It is a poem of the sonic variety.
“It is my honest experience – with love, loss, and para-social relationships vs a personal one.”
Fans flocked to comment and one wrote: “I love both tracks. Beautiful work.
Another added: “Daddy’s little girl.”
“Oh no, I’m not going to be able to listen,” said another fan.
A fourth wrote: “My eyes are red from crying so much I can’t this is so beautifullll.”
A fifth added: “I’m crying too!”
Paris is the only daughter of Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe.
Her legendary father died in June 2009 of cardiac arrest after a doctor prescribed him various medications to help him sleep.
Paris has been open about missing her father and shared a never-before-seen clip of him – 11 years after his tragic death.
Recently, Paris was spotted on an outing with Hayden Karchmer in Los Angeles, which sparked rumours she has officially moved on from her ex-fiancé.
Michael Owen with his son James who was born with a rare eye condition(Image: INSTAGRAM)
Viewers tuning in to Michael Owen’s new reality show have been left curious about his son James Owen’s eye condition.
Six-part series Meet the Owens landed on Prime Video today (August 28) and gives audiences a candid insight into the life and family of former footballer-turned-racehorse owner Michael, his wife Louise and their four children Jessica, Emily, James and Gemma. Episode three shines a spotlight on 20-year-old James as it’s revealed that Michael’s son is clinically blind and suffers from a rare, degenerative eye condition.
During the episode, James and his parents all separately open up about their thoughts and feelings about the condition. Many people are curious to know more about the condition – here’s what James has said about it as well as the condition itself.
James suffers from Stargardt disease, which is a hereditary eye disorder that progressively gets worse. The condition means that he has limited vision, restricted to his peripheral vision.
According to the NHS ’ Moorfields Eye Hospital states: “Stargardt disease is a rare inherited condition affecting one in 8,000 to 10,000 people.” The site goes on to state: “In Stargardt’s the light-sensitive layer of cells in the macular region of the eye degenerate.
“The macular is the area at the back of the eye which is responsible for the fine detailed vision necessary for activities such as watching TV and reading.” The symptoms of Stargardt disease typically develop before the age of 20.
James, who was born with Stargardt disease, only discovered he had the condition when he was just eight after a teacher called his parents into school and told them that their child might be struggling to see at school. It later took the family a while to get the diagnosis.
James said: “Obviously, as you can imagine, it’s been tough growing up. It’s not good in the centre of the view and it makes it hard for me to look straight.” He went on to say: “Quite often people think I’m rude for not keeping eye contact. I’m actually looking at them in the clearest way I possibly can.”
In a heartbreaking admission, James said he’d always wanted to be a professional footballer like his father but his dreams were shattered by the diagnosis. James explained: “That was my dream, to follow my dad’s footsteps: to be a footballer and make a great career.”
He went on to say: “To have a realisation that it’s not possible, it kills you. It used to break my heart.” James added: “Every day coming back from school and I just used to cry and I used to think life was unfair.”
He now works as a trader online, buying and selling gold by himself. However, James said he wanted to put back into his father’s horse racing business Manor House Stables at some point in the future.
Ex-England and Liverpool player Michael, 46, also admitted he felt guilty about his son’s condition because it was genetic. Michael said: “We made James and I don’t think I’d be normal if I didn’t put myself in the mirror and think, ‘You know, it’s down to us that he’s got this eye condition.’”
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The footballing legend continued: “So I did feel guilty for a little while and could say I still feel guilty now.” Nonetheless, Michael said he was looking at the “positives with him” and then the “guilty sort of evaporates”.
Meet the Owens also sees his daughter and Love Island star Gemma taking on her first race after coming from a background in dressage. Gemma had to undergo rigorous training to become a jockey as she planned to take part in the charity race. Moreover, the series sees Michael trying to make a success of Manor House Stables and trying to turn a profit by finding investors to put their money into his business.
Meet the Owens is streaming on Prime Video now
We’d have to say the most challenging thing about us writing “The Comeback” was coming back from the dead after the show was canceled following its first season way back in 2005. Talk about a hiatus.
There are always nerves when you return to do the next season of a series, but when the hiatus lasts 10 years between Season 1 and Season 2, and then another 10 years between the second and this third, final season — that’s a whole other level of “When we last left Valerie …”
But, gratefully, when we get together to write Valerie Cherish and her world again, it’s somehow more exciting than daunting. The nerves fade and the fun starts. The fun along with — of course — the doubts, the surprises, the deadlines, the page count. The comedy and the tragedy (see page count again). We improvise dialogue so much in the writing room that our notes tend to reach into hundreds and hundreds of pages — per episode. That’s a joke … kind of. And on top of all that, this season and this script that we’ve been nominated for writing had a particular challenge.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Between the second and third seasons, one of our most beloved cast members, Robert Michael Morris, died. Robert played the beloved, significant, audience-favorite character Mickey, Valerie’s hairdresser. At first, we couldn’t imagine doing a season without this important person and character … but when we decided to go forward with this season’s story, which deals with the TV industry’s fear of an AI takeover, we knew we had to find a way to deal with Mickey’s absence. We decided that since Robert Michael’s death happened during that second 10-year hiatus, we had to find a way to incorporate that history into the Valerie and Mickey storyline. And because it had never been dealt with by the show on camera, we decided that maybe Valerie hadn’t fully dealt with it as well. That way, the viewers wouldn’t feel like they missed a significant turn in Valerie’s journey. We decided if we could create a story where Valerie hadn’t really grieved Mickey’s passing and had to face it in the episode, then she and (hopefully) the viewers could share the sadness and the love together. And together, they could find a way to accept and release him with respect for the actor and the character and with a bit of triumph for all he meant to Valerie and to all of us on our series.
So, we created a character named Tommy Tomlin — another hairdresser and longtime friend of Mickey’s who Valerie hires to step in and take Mickey’s place and be the hairdresser on her new AI-written sitcom. Well, Tommy can do her hair but, by design, can never replace Mickey, and that conflict between Valerie and Tommy underlines her loss and her denial of Mickey’s passing. Tommy’s presence helps push Valerie to acknowledge Mickey’s absence and moves her to gently face it, finally scatter his ashes and let him go.
It was an emotional story to write and even more emotional to film. Lisa was standing on top of a Warner Bros. soundstage ready to open the box of prop ashes, to allow them to float over “Old Hollywood,” a lure that Mickey loved. But we were filming this scene at sunset, and what comes with the light at that picturesque time of day in Burbank is a strong wind from the surrounding mountains that gets trapped in an impromptu kind of wind tunnel between the soundstages. If Lisa opened the box at the wrong moment, the ashes would fly right back into her face — and in this moment, we were not going for comedy.
I was directing from down on the ground, and I looked up to the heavens and said to Robert Michael Morris, “This is your big moment — please quiet the wind so it can be beautiful and touching and an appropriate goodbye to you and your character.” And — I swear — the wind died down. I called “Action!” and on top of the soundstage, Lisa said her goodbye as Valerie, opened the box and the ashes lifted out, almost magically, and floated out and away into the sunset over the Warner Bros. Studio back lot — just as we imagined in the writing room all those months earlier.
Once they are into the meat of the season, few at Old Trafford will remember this day.
However, depending on how the situation unfolds before the transfer window closes on 1 September, it could be very significant in one way.
With an hour gone, Marcus Rashford was introduced by Carrick as one of six substitutes.
It was his first appearance for his boyhood club since Viktoria Plzen away in the Europa League on 12 December 2024, after which he was effectively banished by Amorim and loaned out, first to Aston Villa and then Barcelona, from where he was not expected to return.
Carrick had enough opportunities when he spoke to UK media in Maynooth on Thursday to say so if it was certain Rashford will be staying beyond this month.
United officials were quick to make it known the number nine shirt Rashford wore in Poland was not permanent, to stave off any complaints from those tempted to buy one.
The 28-year-old looked relaxed enough throughout.
When he was sent out for his first warm-up during the game, he applauded the positive reception he got from United supporters in the corner he was running towards. Although, within seconds, Samuel Chukwueze was tapping home AC Milan’s first equaliser at the same end of the pitch.
Rashford was out later than most of his fellow substitutes for a second-half warm-up, but he still had time for a couple of passing tricks with Martinez – a World Cup semi-final rival a month ago.
Once the England attacker came on, it was noticeable he stayed wider than Patrick Dorgu, the man he replaced on the left. For the record, Dorgu and Harry Maguire were United’s men on the scoresheet in this latest tune-up.
Rashford’s first run ended with him conceding a foul, but it wasn’t long before a brilliant piece of play by the corner flag took him past an opponent.
Not surprisingly, that brought the crowd to its feet.
As reintroductions go, it was solid, not spectacular. But it didn’t need to be anything more.
Premier League games at Hull and against Ipswich will offer a greater insight into Carrick’s thinking. The transfer deadline will bring permanence to what remains an uncertain situation.
