The singer, 63, said his eyesight had deteriorated with age, adding: “Last year it got to the point where I was becoming more and more long-sighted. “I was having to wear trifocal glasses for reading and to watch TV. To make matters worse, the optician discovered I had cataracts – a clouding in the eye lens – developing in both my eyes. I was told that I would need surgery to replace the cloudy lens and the surgeon would replace it with a clear plastic one.
“I had to grab my moment to have the surgery and I had it done in-between the two tours that I did with Midge Ure last year.
“I had the operation on my right eye and then on my left a week later. My vision was really cloudy for a few days and initially I thought, ‘What I have done’. But now I’ve got 20/20 vision and it’s changed my life.
“For the first time in years everything is crystal clear. I can follow the instructions on a sat-nav and I can read the set list on stage.”
The Wherever I Lay My Hat star is now preparing to join Cher as a special guest on her Here We Go Again UK Tour.
He will open for her at London’s O2 arena on October 20 before hitting Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Leeds.
It will be the US music legend’s first shows this side of the pond since her 2004 “farewell” tour.
“I am truly honoured and excited to be performing,” admits Paul.
Paul sang with Wham! star George Michael in the Eighties and enjoyed huge success with hits including Every Time You Go Away and Love Of The Common People. He met his late wife Stacey on a video shoot for his second single Come Back And Stay in 1983, and they married four years later.
The couple had three children – daughters Levi, 32, Layla, 25, and son Grady Cole, 23.
They split up in 2006 but got back together three years later, with Paul becoming stepdad to Stacey’s son Jude, now 12.
Stacey tragically died of brain cancer, aged 52, in January 2018.
At the time, Paul wrote on Twitter: “Sadly Stacey has passed away today after a two-year fight with brain cancer.
“She died peacefully at our home surrounded by family, friends and her four children: Levi, Layla, Grady and Jude”.
Paul is now very conscious of his health. He steers clear of wheat, sugar and chocolate, saying: “If I have them I feel a bit ‘off’ so I have things like gluten-free bread”.
He recently found out he is allergic to coffee. “I refuse to cut it totally out,” he says. “So I am down to about one cup a day from six.”
He has only recently recovered from a brush with serious illness.
“I had pneumonia last Christmas so I wasn’t really able to exercise,” he said.
“It really knocked me for six. I started getting out of breath on stage and had chronic shoulder and back pain.
“It was getting unmanageable and after doing four European shows, I checked myself into hospital the day before Christmas Eve. “But there was no way I was planning to be in hospital for Christmas Day and the kids looked after me over Christmas.
“The healing process was slowed down by the fact they gave me penicillin, which is the best antibiotic to cure pneumonia. But I am really allergic to it.
“It took me four months to get over it. I spent a lot of time in bed and it was difficult to work.
“Doctors eventually put me on a course of steroids and it enabled me to get back into the studio.”
With the new series of Strictly underway, Paul admits his chance to take part has sadly passed.
He says: “When I was in my forties and Strictly first started I should have done it because my knees weren’t that bad then.
“But I wouldn’t be able to do it now because my cartilage has been shot to pieces.
“I can still twirl the microphone stand until the cows come home, but the days of sliding on my knees are over because, if I get down, I need to have something to hang on to to get back up again!”