Why were David Bowie’s eyes different colours?

THE legendary Starman David Bowie was one of the most influential musicians and artists of the 20th century.

One unique feature that fans remember about the late singer, was the fact that he had two different colour eyes.

Why did David Bowie have two different coloured eyes?

David Bowie’s dual-coloured eyes have long since been the source of speculation.

His eyes were blue, but because the pupil in his left eye was so large, it appeared black and made it look as though his eyes were different colors. 

This occurred because Bowie had heterochromia, which effectively meant that the pupils in his eyes were of different sizes – which made his irises appear to be of different colours, too.

This condition can be hereditary, but Bowie didn’t suffer from it until he was into his teenage years.

He developed heterochromia after he was punched in the face by his friend George Underwood in the Spring of 1962.

Recalling the incident to , George said: “Just to get the story straight, it was about a girl we both fancied,”

"She came to my 15th birthday party – everyone was drunk at about eight, including David."

He added: “I was sensible and managed a date with her. David phoned me on the day and said she had told him she didn’t want to meet me because she wanted to go out with him.”

George went on: “So I was very p****d off with him, and in the morning I got on the bus to school and overheard him talking about this girl he was going out with.

“At break time I hit him [inadvertently causing one pupil to become permanently dilated, so Bowie’s eyes appeared to be different colours]. Later David said I did him a favour – everyone talks about his eyes, don’t they?”

Despite the fight, and the life changing injury, Bowie and George patched things up and remained friends until his death in 2016.

The singer even embraced his unique feature throughout his career as he donned his different stage personas.

What is heterochromia?

Heterochromia is when a person has differently colored eyes or eyes that have more than one color.

Most of the time, it doesn't cause any problems.

It's often just a quirk caused by genes passed down from your parents or by something that happened when your eyes were forming.

In rare cases, it can be a symptom of a medical condition.

Heterochromia is common in some animals but rare in humans.