Eagle-eyed fans watching the Oscars last night noticed that the legendary actor Morgan Freeman wore a single black glove on his left hand - and it's for a heartbreaking reason.
Stars flocked to the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles last night as the awards season came to a climax with the 95th Academy Awards ceremony.
It was a big year for first-time nominees, including Austin Butler for his portrayal of Elvis Presley, Jamie Lee Curtis for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once, and Brendan Fraser for his performance in The Whale.
This year was somewhat different, as the celebrities walked down the champagne-colored carpet as it was changed from the famous red color for the first time since 1961. During last night's ceremony, famous faces took to the stage to either accept or present an award, and everyone's favorite Morgan Freeman joined Margot Robbie to introduce a reel celebrating Warner Bros' 100th birthday. Taking to the stage with the Australian-born actress, fans noticed that the iconic actor was wearing a single black glove on his left hand - and it has a very specific reason.
Freeman, 85, was in a serious car accident in 2008 that resulted in his left hand being paralyzed, as per the Independent.
Morgan Freeman and Margot Robbie speak onstage during the #Oscars pic.twitter.com/cSwQ8wkfFk
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His vehicle flipped multiple times on a Mississippi highway and the actor had to be cut out of the car by the emergency services before being airlifted to the hospital.
Speaking to the Guardian at the time, Clay McFerrin, a local newspaper editor, said: "They had to use the jaws of life [hydraulic cutters] to extract him from the vehicle. He was lucid and conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point." Speaking to PEOPLE in 2010, as cited by WHO, Freeman detailed that the crash left him unable to move his hand due to nerve damage that he didn't recover from. As a result of this, he now wears a compression glove to keep the blood flowing in his hand. The glove ensures that his hand doesn't swell up due to its inactivity, and the actor has opened up in the past about the pain that he still endures down his left arm.
Questions about the glove were also raised when Freeman opened the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, as he took to the pitch during the opening ceremony.
