David Bowie's Odd-Looking Eye Explained

We may never get answers to some of David Bowie's bizarre habits, but at least we now know why his eyes look so different from each other. As it turns out, the Thin White Duke's ocular oddity is the result of a fight stemming from a teenage romantic rivalry.

"When I was 14 I fell in love with a girl. I was crazy about her. Only trouble was, my best mate had a bit of a soft spot for her too, but I was the winner," Bowie told biographer Mark Spitz, according to the Daily Express. "I moved in before he'd even made up his mind about how to approach her. Next day I was at school boasting to my mate about what a Casanova I was and he became terribly annoyed. In fact he threw a punch at me.

"It caught me in the eye and I stumbled against a wall and onto my knees," Bowie added. "At first he thought I was kidding. It wasn't a very hard punch but obviously caught me at a rather odd angle."

George Underwood, Bowie's friend and then foe, also gave his two cents to Spitz. "He knew damn well why I did it," Underwood said. "We both wanted to go out with her and I was lucky enough to get a date. On the day of the date David rang me up and said that she had to cancel. So I didn't go but he had made up the whole story. The girl stood around for over an hour waiting for me as I discovered later. It was a bastard thing to do and I was furious with him, so it developed into a fight between us. And during the punch-up I caught his eye with a fingernail."

The sphincter muscles in Bowie's left eye were torn and after some operations, his pupil remains permanently open. "For quite a while I was very embarrassed about it," Bowie said. "Although I could see very well out of the eye, it made me self-conscious."