Michael Rowland on his dilated pupil after ABC News Breakfast viewers expressed concern

As a TV presenter, I’m used to getting all kinds of feedback from viewers.

A lot amounts to references to free characters, particularly after political interviews.

I’ve found that a certain blue dress I’m wearing polarizes the audience, as does my tempting humor (sorry, I’m respecting both of them).

But there has been a constant theme of viewer attention over my 10 years on News Breakfast, and it’s all to do with my right eye.

Or, more precisely, his permanently dilated pupil.

I’ll get to why it looks like this in a moment, but first to some of the avalanches of concern that have arisen from an otherwise harmless appearance on this week’s show from the Sydney hotel quarantine.

Sue: I am not a doctor, but it is a sign that something is wrong. I’m not trying to be funny, just worried.

Imelda: I’m just watching you on TV. I’ve never noticed your unequal pupils before. Am I just checking that you know?

Nurses Sue and Beth: I just looked at you on ABC News Breakfast and noticed you have a dilated right pupil. Is it okay or is it normal for you?

Nathan: What’s happening with Michael’s pupil?

Heather: Not sure it’s me, but is Michael’s pupil dilated? I thought he’d like to have it checked.

And my favorite, from a very well-meaning Keri:

It turns out that Keri is a brain aneurysm survivor.

I have also been contacted by numerous doctors and ophthalmologists who have expressed similar concerns about my ocular well-being.

The level of care for my well-being is quite touching, and it makes a nice change from all the unpleasant correspondence (which has me only one eye anyway).

And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like all the comparisons with David Bowie, who had an equally deformed pupil.

Unfortunately for me, this is the only thing we had in common.

Like David, my eye condition is the result of trauma.

It was said that his was the result of a punch in the face; my eye came out second from a race with a slingshot bullet.

The eye began to fill with blood

It was a mild late night in January 1988.

My friend Patrick and I were driving through Annandale in the Sydney outback in my burnt orange VW Golf.

Fortunately, he was driving at the time. Otherwise the consequences could have been much worse.

The windows of the car were down and we were chatting when I suddenly felt a shot in my right eye.

It didn’t hurt at first. There was just general numbness.

Then the excruciating pain came and the eye began to fill with blood.

It later turned out that someone was shooting slingshot bullets at cars that night, and I happened to peek a bull’s eye.

Patrick took me to the nearest hospital and I was quickly sent to the old Sydney Eye Hospital in Woolloomooloo for emergency surgery.

A team, led by ophthalmologist Frank Martin, managed to save the eye, but the pupil had to remain dilated forever.

I spent a few weeks in the hospital recovering and many months later wore a damaged eye patch, fueling my love of pirate gags.

My eyes can’t take a trick

For years afterwards, I was incredibly awkward about my “crooked eye” and would even avoid making eye contact with people for fear it would be too distracting.

This has decreased over time, but I am still keenly aware of how different my eyes are.

I know, as I did with my quarantine look, that close-ups and bright lighting accentuate the larger pupil, especially since it can’t adapt to light and shadow.

This is usually not a problem, as they are normally a fair distance from the cameras in the much brighter News Breakfast studio (which is good for everyone).

In a cruel stroke of fate, I also happen to be color blind, so my poor eyes can’t take a make-up.

Hopefully, this will put the minds of many viewers to rest.

I felt compelled to string a few words together just because of the torrent of worry that flowed my way after appearing in the hotel room this week.

I really appreciate the level of interest breakfast viewers have in my well-being and appearance.

Eye really.