TONY BENNETT: LIFE IS A GIFT EVEN WITH ALZHEIMER’S
94-year-old ‘is a symbol of hope for dementia sufferers’
LEGENDARY singer Tony Bennett has Alzheimer’s disease.
His family confirmed the diagnosis, saying the 94-year-old superstar had suffered from the degenerative brain condition since 2016.
His condition worsened in 2018 while recording a second album on which singer Lady Gaga appeared.
His wife Susan said: “There’s a lot about him that I miss because he’s not the old Tony any more. But when he sings, he’s the old Tony.”
Yesterday in a tweet Bennett posted an upbeat message: “Life is a gift – even with Alzheimer’s.”
He thanked his wife and his family for their support, and AARP The Magazine, a publication which focuses on age issues , “for telling my story”. Although the father of four’s condition has worsened over the past few years, he has been spared disorientation that can prompt patients to wander from home, as well as episodes of terror, rage or depression.
Bennett, who has won 18 Grammies, first suspected his health may have been suffering six years ago when he began to forget fellow musicians’ names.
Susan, his third wife, said: “We got him a list that he put on the piano, but he wasn’t happy about it.
“We came one night after a show, and he said to me, ‘Susan, you know, I can’t remember the musicians’ names’. I just chalked it up to him being, you know, at the time, you know, late 80s. We forget things. And he said, ‘No, no.’ He said, ‘This isn’t right’.”
It led to Bennett visiting a doctor and a neurologist, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, who confirmed he had Alzheimer’s.
Appearing on US TV yesterday, Susan said: “He’s not in any pain. And that’s why he doesn’t think anything is wrong with him. He’s like, ‘Susan, nothing hurts. I feel great.’ He works out five times a week. He sings twice a week with a pianist that comes over. He only understands if something is an ‘ouch’, then there’s a problem. If you ask him how he feels, he’s, ‘I feel great.’ Susan looks after the singer overseeing his exercise regime and Mediterranean diet. She also encourages him to continue singing to help slow down his memory loss. Asked if he knew who she was, Susan added: “Thank goodness he does. He knows all his kids, absolutely.And he knows me.
“When you’re somebody’s care giver 24/7, it goes a long way if they still know you. You know, every night when we go to bed, he says, ‘I love you Susan’. And every morning when he wakes up he says, ‘I love you’.
“He gets frustrated. He doesn’t like being confused. But none of the real negative things.” Bennett’s doctor, Dr Gayatri Devi, said: “He is doing so many things, at 94, that many people without dementia cannot do. He really is the symbol of hope for someone with a cognitive disorder.” Of Susan, he added: “I’ve been humbled by the level of devotion. She also expects a lot from him. I think her background as a teacher helps but she’s also very much in love with him. And he rises to her expectations.”
Susan said that when Bennett does die she hopes it will be like actor Sean Connery who passed quietly in his sleep last year.
As well as Lady Gaga, Bennett shared a special bond with fellow star singer Amy Winehouse.
Before her death in 2011, her last studio recording was with him.