Englebert on how faith helps with his wife’s Alzheimer’s
As Engelbert Humperdinck releases his first Christmas album in nearly 30 years, the singer speaks to Alex Green about faith, family and his wife’s battle with Alzheimer’s.
ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK has driven home for Christmas. Or at least an early version of it after coming back to Leicester this month for a festive celebration with his family before heading back to California for Christmas Day to spend time with his wife, who he recently revealed is being treated for Alzheimer’s.
“It’s so accurate, a song like that. The song is so real,” says the 82-yearold balladeer of Chris Rea’s classic, chatting happily in a quiet corner on the 15th floor of the St George’s Hotel in central London earlier this month as he promotes his first Christmas album in nearly three decades before heading off the East Midlands.
The world-famous crooner has the tanned skin and slim figure of a much younger man. Only his poor hearing gives away his octogenarian status.
Humperdinck, who changed his name from Arnold George Dorsey, recently went public about his wife Patricia’s decade-long battle with the illness, a battle that has seen him searching desperately for a cure.
He will return to Los Angeles for Christmas Day, which he will spend with her.
“My family has always been important to me,” he explains. “At Christmas time, we celebrate together, but this year I can’t come home to Leicester because of my wife’s illness. Hopefully, when she is better, we will come and spend Christmas at home.”
His wife’s illness dominates the conversation but Humperdinck is overwhelmingly optimistic. The pair met over 50 years ago at a dancehall in Leicester, and were married in 1964. Now, she struggles to recognise his face.
The performer, known for his deep Roman-Catholic faith, credits prayer for preventing her condition from worsening.
“The reason I went public with her condition is because I do have great faith and I believe that the more people who pray, the more it forms a chain, a rosary of prayer. It comes down to the person who is suffering, the victim of the disease. I think prayer is one of the greatest healers around, more than medication.”
He has been investigating alternative medicine, looking to India and Sri Lanka for herbal cures. “I don’t think you should rely on medicine,” he declares. “I think you should rely upon herbal doctors, acupuncture and doctors outside the medical world, with different kinds and forms of treatment. I rely upon nature to provide the cure for my wife.”
And he claims to have found success in electrical acupuncture, a shock treatment which he claims can form new stem cells. “I think it’s had a lot to do with the repairing of my wife’s health,” he says.
Still a formidable performer with a voice seemingly unaffected by age, Humperdinck has been forced to reduce his touring schedule to spend more time with his wife. “It’s hard to leave her,” he says. “But she’s in reliable hands. She has her carers and I have to work.”
Humperdinck may not be a household name among millennials
– or those under the age of 30 – but he has impacted modern music in surprising and extraordinary ways. Damon Albarn tried to recruit him for his Gorillaz project and a recent album saw him collaborate with Elton John.
And Humperdinck keeps one eye on the changing landscape of popular taste, citing Ariana Grande as his dream duet partner, and happily explaining his aspirations to appear on talent show The Voice.
For now, Humperdinck plans to focus all his energy on caring for his wife, snatching time to sing for his fans when he can. And despite all this, he feels a deep sense of optimism.
“You can’t sit at home and wait for things to happen,” he says. “That’s the way I am. I’m not tired of it. I love doing it, and I’m still very flattered that people still want to talk to me.”