Tony Bennett Reveals His Battle Against Alzheimer’s At 94

Tony Bennett Reveals His Battle Against Alzheimer’s At 94.

Tony Bennett and his family have revealed today, Monday, that he has been battling Alzheimer’s disease, it is understood that the 94-year-old iconic singer was diagnosed in 2016.

The crooner can still recognise family members, but he is not always sure where he is or what is happening around him, his wife, Susan Crow, said in a TV interview. She explained that objects, such as a fork or even a set of house keys, can baffle him.

Dr Gayatri Devi, a neurologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, USA, who diagnosed Bennett, explained, “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.”

Bennett was showing signs of the disease in 2018 when he recorded an upcoming album with Lady Gaga, his wife remembered telling the management she was not entirely sure the singer could handle the sessions. “We’ll try,” she recalled saying then. “That’s all I can tell you. We’ll try.”

Lady Gaga, reportedly aware of his condition, kept her expressions short and simple when they conversed, which is recommended by medical experts of the disease.

Devi strongly encouraged the family to keep Bennett singing and performing for as long as he could happily do so, as “it kept him on his toes and also stimulated his brain in a significant way,” she said. His last public performance was on March 11, 2020, at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, New Jersey.

However, due to the pandemic, Bennett like most of America has remained at home to be safe.

“This has been a real blow from a cognitive perspective,” Devi said “His memory, prior to the pandemic, was so much better. And he’s not alone. So many of my patients are negatively affected by the isolation, the inability to do the things that matter to them. For someone like Tony Bennett, the big high he gets from performing was very important.”

Another iconic singer from the same era, Engelbert Humperdinck, has recently tested positive for coronavirus, the singer, 84, asked for “prayers, good energy, love and support to be sent our way” after Covid-19 “found a way into our home”. His agent said that he is currently asymptomatic.

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