Biggins kept Barbara Windsor’s Alzheimer’s secret

BARBARA Windsor’s close friend Christopher Biggins has spoken candidly about the actress’s secret battle with Alzheimer’s. Speaking on TV magazine show Lorraine, the 69-year-old actor admitted that he and other long-time friends of the Carry On star had known of her diagnosis for four years and praised 80-year-old Barbara’s husband Scott Mitchell for being her ‘rock’. The I’m A Celebrity star said: ‘The close friends, and obviously Scott her amazing husband, we’ve known about four years. ‘It’s been happening very slightly, and I think it got to a point where I think Scott felt that he wanted to come out about it, because when he went out with her in the street people were coming up and she was getting confused. ‘So I think he wanted the public to know so that the confusion wouldn’t be there.’ The musical star said of the former EastEnders’ actress: ‘She’s the best. I’ve known her for 40 years.’ He praised Barbara’s husband of 18 years Scott, 55, saying ‘he has been a total rock’. This comes after Christopher candidly spoke about the actress at the Daily Mirror’s NHS Heroes Awards, revealing he shared a ‘moving’ phone call with her over the weekend where he learnt that the icon ‘didn’t quite understand what’s going on’ and was ‘feeling low’. Barbara’s diagnosis was announced by her husband Scott last week – four years after they received the tragic news themselves. He added that the beloved screen star has been taking medication to manage the illness, but that her memory loss symptoms have worsened.