Anderson Cooper Goes Blind on Assignment

Bit of a scare for Anderson Cooper: He was on assignment for 60 Minutes in Portugal last week when he sunburned his eyes and went blind for 36 hours, Entertainment Tonight reports. "Temporarily blinded last week while on assignment," he wrote on an Instragram photo of himself with a bandaged eye. "UV light bouncing off water. Much better now." He went into greater detail today on Anderson Live: "I wake up in the middle of the night and it feels like my eyes are on fire—my eyeballs—and I think, oh maybe I have sand in my eyes or something."

He doused his eyes with water, but it turned out "I have sunburned my eyeballs and I go blind." He showed viewers photos of himself wearing patches over both eyes, not just the one in the Instagram shot: "That's my new Match.com profile picture by the way, I think that's going to really work for me," he quipped. On the show, chief NBC medical editor Nancy Snyderman said light bouncing off water on a boat trip burned his retinas, People reports. "It's a reminder that frankly everyone needs sunglasses," she said. "Fortunately for you you're going to be fine, but it's a real reminder." (More Anderson Cooper stories.)