Robbie Williams has revealed his mother Janet has been diagosed with dementia.
The diagnosis comes four years after the singer revealed his dad Pete had Parkinson’s.
The singer, 50, spoke about the diagnosis after revealing how his upcoming biopic Better Man depicts his loving relationship with his late grandmother who has dementia in the film.
When asked about his parents thoughts on the film, Robbie told HELLO! ‘My mum’s currently got dementia – like my nan in the film – and my dad’s got Parkinsons and can’t get out of bed. So I’m in a different part of my life right now.’
Back in 2020 Robbie revealed his father Pete had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, admitting at the time that he was fighting ‘fear and panic’ over his father’s diagnosis.
He told The Mirror that receiving the diagnosis during Covid made things extra difficult as he and his wife Ayda and their children were self-isolating thousands of miles away from his parents in Los Angeles.
‘We’ve got a lot of family issues right now. My dad has got Parkinson’s, my mother-in-law who I love dearly has got a very big illness. We can’t get to them. My dad is thousands of miles away.’
Robbie added of his mum at the time: ‘My mum is just a year short of 80 and she’s in isolation and I can see the things whirling in her mind and her eyes going.’
The former Take That star has been joined by his father Pete, who is also a singer, many times on stage.
Robbie’s parents split in 1977. The pair also share daughter Sally, who is 11 years Robbie’s senior.
The pop star previously shared his worry for both of his parents during an interview with The Sun, sharing: ‘They’re of that age that is very vulnerable to what is going on, so I am speaking to them on the phone daily.’
Robbie and his wife Ayda, 45, have a lot to contend with as Ayda also recently revealed that her mother Gwen’s cervical cancer has returned, after previous battles with breast cancer and a Parkinson’s and Lupus diagnosis.
Speaking on her show Loose Women last month Ayda told her co-stars ‘this is a really tough thing for me to talk about.
‘My mother – we don’t talk about stages in our house – and I say all of this after having discussed it with my mum that I was going to potentially discuss what she was going through.
‘My mother said, “I so want you to tell this story, I just want to make sure it’s positive. I am going to do my best and I am going to make this positive.”
‘My mother has unfortunately had a return of her cervical cancer. She is also a breast cancer survivor.’
Getting emotional, she explained: ‘So the cancer has come back and we got the news a couple of months ago and I’ve just been privately processing it.
‘But when we were talking about this today and it’s breast cancer awareness month, I realised I really always wanna be authentic when I’m here and authentic with my group of friends.
‘It felt like this was an appropriate time to talk about the battle behind closed doors in our house.’
Back in 2020, Ayda spoke of her mother’s previous battle with cancer on Robbie’s podcast At Home With The Williamses.
She said: ‘It had spread outside the cervix and was a very aggressive tumour.
‘Alongside her Parkinson’s and her lupus was this cancer battle, because the cancer was so big they decided that she immediately go into chemo and radiation daily and have surgery.
‘It was very scary as my mum with Parkinson’s, lupus, and cancer at 70 years old is prime for some bad things happening.
‘So she was going to hospital every day for these treatments and I was worried she was going to pick something up.’
In September Robbie and Ayda were left devastated when both of their dogs died on the same night.
Taking to Instagram, the pop legend and his actress wife revealed their beloved pooches Poupette and Walle died together in bed, with the losses marking the ‘closing of one huge chapter’.
In a lengthy caption, Ayda told how Poupette had been a part of her life for 18 years, being her companion before she met the former Take That star, before they went on to create a ‘blended’ dog family with the introduction of Walle a few years later.
WHAT IS DEMENTIA?
A GLOBAL CONCERN
Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a range of progressive neurological disorders (those affecting the brain) which impact memory, thinking and behaviour.
There are many types of dementia, of which Alzheimer’s disease is the most common.
Some people may have a combination of different types of dementia.
Regardless of which type is diagnosed, each person will experience dementia in their own unique way.
Dementia is a global concern but it is most often seen in wealthier countries, where people are likely to live into very old age.
HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE AFFECTED?
The Alzheimer’s Society reports there are more than 900,000 people living with dementia in the UK today. This is projected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, affecting between 50 and 75 per cent of those diagnosed.
In the US, it’s estimated there are 5.5 million Alzheimer’s sufferers. A similar percentage rise is expected in the coming years.
As a person’s age increases, so does the risk of them developing dementia.
Rates of diagnosis are improving but many people with dementia are thought to still be undiagnosed.
IS THERE A CURE?
Currently there is no cure for dementia.
But new drugs can slow down its progression and the earlier it is spotted, the more effective treatments can be.
Source: Alzheimer’s Society
