Dame Babs has gone ‘downhill rapidly’ with dementia
DAME Barbara Windsor has gone “downhill rapidly” as she bravely battles Alzheimer’s, a close friend revealed yesterday.
Her husband Scott Mitchell admitted this week that the Carry On and EastEnders legend has had the disease for four years.
Friend Paul Bennett said her condition was now deteriorating, adding: “I spoke to Scott last week and he said she had gone downhill rapidly over the past couple of weeks. I talked to Barbara and she just said ‘I’m not so well now’.” He said Dame Barbara, 80, was rocked by the death of her close friend and entertainer Dale Winton at 62 last month.
He said: “She took that badly. Since the diagnosis there have been up days and down days, but there are more down days now.”
The revelation that the stage and screen icon is succumbing to the brain wasting disease has shocked her army of fans who have flooded her with messages of support.
But Scott, 55, who has been married to Dame Barbara for 18 years, revealed she “suddenly has no recollection of our history”.
He added: “She’ll look at her wedding ring and say ‘Are we married?’ But that’s the thing about this cruel disease.
“Since her 80th birthday last August, a continual confusion has set in, so it’s more difficult for us to hide. I want us to be able to go out and, if something isn’t quite right, it will be OK because people will now know she has Alzheimer’s and will accept it for what it is.”
Scott said he spotted the first symptoms in 2009 when, as EastEnders’ brassy landlady Peggy Mitchell, she had difficulty remembering her lines.
By 2016, the year she became a dame for services to charity and show business, it was getting so bad that it was agreed she would leave the BBC One soap.