David Cassidy 66: ‘I’m fighting dementia’
The former singer back in his Seventies heyday
SEVENTIES heart-throb David Cassidy yesterday revealed he is battling dementia.
The actor and singer made the announcement after performances in California sparked alarm among his fans when he repeatedly forgot the words to songs and seemed physically unstable.
Videos on social media of his appearances over the weekend at Agoura Hills, west of Los Angeles, raised further concerns.
The former Partridge Family singer, now 66, admitted he had been in “denial” about what was happening to him, but had now accepted his condition.
Cassidy, who starred in the 1970s TV series The Partridge Family, said, “Part of me always knew this was coming”, as the disease ran in his family.
His mother, the US actress Evelyn Ward, died from Alzheimer’s-related dementia at the age of 89 in 2012. His grandfather also suffered from the disease.
Cassidy, whose hits include I Think I Love You and Cherish, was known to have been struggling with drinking and money troubles.
In 2015, he filed for bankruptcy. Between 2010 and 2014, he was arrested three times for drunken driving and was ordered to rehab as part of his sentence in 2014.
The star, who enjoyed hits such as How Can I Be Sure, said he had now decided to stop touring.
The announcement ends a long career for the singer-songwriter. After starring in The Partridge Family, he went on to become one of the most celebrated teen idols of the 1970s.
He has two children and is now married to third wife Sue Shifrin, 67. At the time of his mother’s death, the singer became a spokesman for the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America and the Alzheimer’s Research & Prevention Foundation, travelling around the nation to tell his personal story of her dementia.
“I wanted to use my notoriety to put myself in a position to help others,” he said. “I wanted to educate and tell my story.”
DAVID CASSIDY has revealed he is suffering from dementia. This is awful news made all the worse by the fact that at the age of 66 he is relatively young. However, his brave decision to talk honestly about the disease must be commended.
High-profile cases do raise awareness, improve education and may ultimately help efforts to find a cure. Something good may yet come out of his horrible diagnosis.