Anderson Cooper Blind, Suffers Temporary Sun Blindness for 36 Hours on '60 Minutes' Assignment in Portugal, Tweets Eyepatch Pic

Popular CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper recently described how it felt to go temporarily blind while on a "60 Minutes" assignment in Portugal last week on his daytime television talk show, "Anderson Live." Apparently Cooper's right eye spent a little too much time under the strong UV rays, blinding the 45-year-old journalist for a torturous 36 hours. Cooper sent out an Instagram pic of his bandaged up eye on Tuesday (Dec. 4), urging fans to tune in to his syndicated CBS talk show for further details surrounding his brush with sun blindness.

On Tuesday, Cooper sent out this message and Instagram photo on Twitter:

‏@andersoncooper: "Temporarily blinded last week while on assignment. UV light bouncing off water. Much better now. Details today on #andersonlive."

Apparently the popular host of "Anderson Cooper 360°" was blinded for 36 hours due to sunlight reflecting off of the water while he shot a story at sea near Portugal for "60 Minutes." He described the experience on "Anderson Live" on Tuesday:

"I wake up in the middle of the night and it feels like my eyes are on fire," says Cooper. "It turns out I have sunburned my eyeballs and I go blind. I went blind for 36 hours. I took this picture of me after I went to the hospital."

Even so, Cooper was still able to joke with the audience about the rather frightening ordeal - "That's my new Match.com profile picture, by the way."