Robin Williams’

Family strikes back after his widow pens a revealing essay about the late actor

She wasn’t afraid to share the most intimate details about his life. In a new essay in the medical journal Neurology, Robin Williams’ widow, Susan Schneider, reveals how Lewy body disease ravaged the late actor in his final years. He suffered from “constipation, urinary difficulty, heartburn, sleeplessness and insomnia, and a poor sense of smell — and lots of stress,” Susan, 52, writes. And during the filming of his 2014 movie Night at the Museum 3, Robin, who committed suicide at age 63, “was having trouble remembering even one line for his scenes. This loss of memory and inability to control his anxiety was devastating to him.”

Robin’s family is livid. “There was no reason to reveal every last detail,” a Williams family source exclusively tells In Touch. “He was a private man. He was a great clown, but he kept his illness to himself.” While Susan claims she penned the piece to inspire LBD researchers, it comes at a huge cost to Robin. “He never would have agreed to this,” adds the source. “He’s rolling over in his grave right now.”

Susan also writes that “Robin kept saying, ‘I just want to reboot my brain.’” She added that she believed he “did have hallucinations, but was keeping that to himself. … At times, he would find himself stuck in a frozen stance, unable to move, and frustrated when he came out of it. His loss of basic reasoning just added to his growing confusion.”

It’s a cruel betrayal. “Robin was private about his slipups,” says the family source. “He was getting more and more confused, angry and frustrated when he’d have a forgetful moment, but he wouldn’t want that out there. In the end, the only way he found peace was by shutting his brain off permanently. It was the only option he thought he had.”

This isn’t the first time Susan has clashed with Robin’s family. In October 2015, the Patch Adams star’s kids, Zak, 33, Zelda, 27, and Cody, 24, settled a vicious 10-month legal battle over their dad’s $100 million estate after Susan challenged many of his specific last wishes. Shortly after, his wife of nearly three years went on a talk show blitz dropping bombshell anecdotes about how severely Robin had degenerated before his death. “She’s a sellout who hurt his memory,” says the source. “She likes being thought of as a spokesperson for Robin’s illness.”

They want it to stop. “She’s hurting his family when she writes super-private things about Robin. Doesn’t she know how much it upsets his children, how painful it is to read that?” says the family source. “He never would have wanted it to be this way.” ◼