Exclusive
BRAVE BARBARA
EASTENDERS and Carry On legend Dame Barbara Windsor has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Barbara, 80, has been taking medication to help manage the degenerative brain disease, but in recent weeks her symptoms of memory loss and confusion have grown steadily worse.
15
Now her devoted husband Scott Mitchell has decided to go public with the news in an exclusive, unpaid interview with The Sun.
He says: “Firstly, I hope speaking out will help other families dealing with loved ones who have this cruel disease. Secondly, I want the public to know because they are naturally very drawn to Barbara and she loves talking to them.
“So rather than me living in fear she might get confused or upset, they’ll know that if her behaviour seems strange, it’s due to Alzheimer’s and accept it for what it is.”
Sitting in front of me now, Scott, 55, bites his lip, clearly struggling to talk publicly about the devastating diagnosis they were given on April 22, 2014, and have kept under wraps until now.
15
Barbara Windsor is a fan favourite for her incredible performances in the Carry On films
The best of Peggy Mitchell
15
“When the doctor told us, she began crying then held it back, stretched her hand out to me and mouthed, ‘I’m so sorry . . .’
“I squeezed her hand back and said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll be OK’.”
He stops talking as tears spill silently down his face — the pressure of dealing with such a cruel illness all too palpable.
“I can’t protect her any longer. I’m doing this interview — and I would like to make clear that I’m not being paid for it and it’s the only one I’ll be doing — because I know that rumours are circulating in showbusiness circles.
“And, since her 80th birthday last August, a definite continual confusion has set in, so it’s becoming a lot more difficult for us to hide.
15
15
“I don’t want it to come across that she’s sitting there unable to communicate, because she’s not.
“We’re still going out for walks or dinner with friends and we still laugh together a lot. She loves going out and it’s good for her — she comes alive. And of course, the public are naturally very drawn to her, which I don’t want to stop.
“But as soon as we leave the house, I live in constant terror that she’s going to say something, or suddenly have a panic attack, or get photographed when she’s not looking right.
“I didn’t want someone else to dictate how or when the diagnosis came out, so that’s why I’m speaking about it now.
15
Richard Arnold pays tribute to friend Barbara Windsor on Good Morning Britain after she is diagnosed with dementia
“I’m doing this because 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 that she has Alzheimer’s and will accept it for what it is.”
Barbara — or ‘Bar’ as Scott often calls her — knows he is giving this interview. But does she fully understand the implications of it?
“She often asks me, ‘Do the public know that I’m not well?’ And she asked me again this morning.
“I said they didn’t yet, but we were going to have to let them know because so many people are talking now. But if she forgets that she gave me her blessing, well, I’ll just have to deal with that,” he says matter-of-factly.
15
“Unfortunately, I notice she feels a kind of shame about it. There’s a vulnerability there and I keep telling her, ‘Bar, no one will think you’re silly for having this’.
“I explain that if someone has cancer, no one looks at them and thinks ‘How ridiculous’. We sympathise and it’s the same with this.”
Shortly after the diagnosis, Scott confided in a small circle of trusted friends — myself among them — who socialise regularly with the couple and had started to notice her occasional repetitiveness and confusion.
But he protected her from the news going public because at first Barbara, with whom he recently celebrated 18 years of marriage, struggled to accept the diagnosis. “We walked out of the neurologist’s office and it was almost as if she chose to forget what we had just been told.
15
“That’s Bar 100 per cent. And I understood because who would want to take that in? Sometimes, denial is easier, isn’t it?” he smiles sadly.
“It was important to her to keep going through life without people looking at her in any different way. And I respected her wishes on that.
“For it to have come out any earlier would have been detrimental to her wellbeing and her health.” Scott, however, absorbed the full implications immediately and asked to return alone to the office of renowned neurologist Dr Angus Kennedy.
“I remember my heart was pounding and I had this really empty feeling inside me. I just needed to clarify what was going to happen next.
15
EastEnders: Barbara Windsor first episode as Peggy Mitchell
“I said to him, ‘I have this fear that one day she won’t know who she is or what she achieved. And maybe that she won’t know me’.
“I was terribly upset and I remember he said to me, ‘My God, you really love her, don’t you’?” The tears start to flow again. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I have kept this bottled up for so long that talking about it so openly feels like a release.”
Scott first noticed that something might be wrong in 2009 — just before Barbara, who doesn’t have Alzheimer’s in her family, left EastEnders for the first time.
Filming the scenes of the old Vic pub burning down, she was working long hours and constantly exhausted.
15
“Barbara had always prided herself on her memory and would say if anyone wanted to know anything, they’d phone her. But she started to find it difficult to learn her lines.
“She also had a couple of freezes when working, which was unusual for her. But we didn’t think anything of it.”
By early 2012, she had started repeating certain sentences and stories, and a doctor friend recommended that Scott, a former actor who now manages other EastEnders stars, contact Dr Kennedy.
“From the start, I said to Bar, ‘I want you to have these tests because you’re getting a bit forgetful and we may as well just nip it in the bud’. She was fine about it.”
15
The tests were done at their home, a cosy mews house in central London.
There were two separate appointments, of around two hours each, during which Barbara completed word and number games and had to tell a story in detail, before returning to it later.
“In my mind, I truly hoped it would be nothing. Just a bit of old age, you know?” he says ruefully. “But if I’m honest, I had also noticed a slight change in Barbara’s personality. Rather than being her normal positive, bubbly self, it felt like a thin veil had been drawn across her that was more serious.
“At times, I’d see a slight sadness develop that just wasn’t her. I put it down to age, but I now believe it was the very start of this illness.”
15
At first, Dr Kennedy kept an eye on the symptoms and, over the next 18 months, ordered the memory tests, brain scan and, finally, the definitive lumbar puncture.
Following the devastating diagnosis, Scott was determined to try and keep Barbara’s life as normal as possible for as long as he feasibly could. It helped that, at the time, the Alzheimer’s was mild and, partly thanks to daily medication, Barbara was functioning well.
“Dr Kennedy said she could continue working and I was so relieved. She’s had some pretty traumatic ups and downs in her life and she always got through them by focusing on her work.
“She’s a mini warrior, and this was no exception. So if ever I tried to talk about the diagnosis, she’d get a little bit defensive and say, ‘I’m just a bit forgetful. It’s my age.’
15
For the next few months, life returned to normal, with Barbara returning briefly to EastEnders a couple more times without any memory issues. Scott said: “When she was doing her job, or out in public being
Barbara Windsor, it didn’t seem to affect her. But it was showing at home. By 2016, it was getting worse.
The repetitiveness was becoming more common and there was slight confusion in conversation, but nothing major.”
Gently broaching the matter of her memory loss, Scott suggested to Barbara that she should return to EastEnders one last time and they agreed it was a good idea to kill off her character Peggy Mitchell.
“Barbara contacted the Executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins to make the suggestion and, at first, he said, ‘I can’t kill an iconic character’.
15
“So I went to see him and, without giving the full situation, confided that she was really struggling to learn lines and wouldn’t ever be coming back again after this.
“I asked that she have an autocue on set, just as a safety net. But in the end, she just used it to refresh her memory between takes. If you saw the Peggy death scenes, you could see she wasn’t reading it.
“Ironically, I think it’s some of the best work she ever did. I was incredibly proud of her.”
In March 2016, Barbara, whose acting career has spanned nearly six decades, was awarded a Damehood for services to showbusiness and charity — a joyful day that Scott says she still remembers every second of.
15
Since leaving EastEnders, she has recently narrated a couple of shows for Radio Two — one about comedy duo Abbott and Costello that has yet to air — and continued with her tireless charity work for, among others, Age UK and the Royal British Legion.
The most recent was a visit to the Queen Victoria Seaman’s Mission in London’s East End, close to where she grew up.
“That was just last month and she was really good,” smiles Scott.
“But the confusion has started to set in much more over the past few weeks, so we have decided she should now retire from charity work as well as acting.”
MOST READ IN NEWS
His plan now is to make sure that Barbara’s illness is managed as effectively and sensitively as possible — and that she’s allowed to enjoy the rest of her life freely and in peace. Scott will continue to work closely with Dr Kennedy and take advice.
“So many journalists have said that Barbara has always been a good sport. She’s been the subject of many scandalous stories, dusted herself off and got on with it. She accepted it was part of her job and theirs too.
“So I would like to hope that the press will now show her the same respect she’s shown them over the years. She deserves that.”
Moment Barbara Windsor's made a dame
- SCOTT has not been paid for this interview. At his request The Sun has made a significant donation to The Alzheimer’s Society.
Anyone with concerns about the issues raised can call the National Dementia Helpline or 0300 222 1122 or visit alzheimers.org.uk for information and support.