Former EastEnders star Barbara Windsor still has a laugh and has some really good days as she battles Alzheimers disease
The EastEnders legend has been battling Alzheimers for four years (Picture: WENN.com) Dame Barbara W..
Dame Barbara Windsor still has a laugh and has some really good days as she battles Alzheimers.
The veteran entertainers former EastEnders co-star Rita Simmons – who played her TV niece Roxy Mitchell – also said that the Peggy Mitchell actor would be lost with her husband Scott Mitchell, 55.
Scott – the Carry On stars husband of 18 years – shocked fans in May as he revealed his wife secretly dealt with the disease for four years.
Just because shes got this terrible disease doesnt mean shes locked up in her flat all the time, Rita said of the 80-year-old when speaking to The Mirror.
She still has a laugh – she just has to factor this in as part of her life. Shes been having some really good days.
Shes got Scott who is amazing. That is commitment. Without Scott Barbara would be lost. Hes the most wonderful husband to her.
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Ritas character was killed off the BBC soap opera a year and a half ago with her on-screen sister Ronnie Mitchell, played by Samantha Womack.
She has appeared as the leading role in the musical Legally Blonde – the West End version of the hit Reese Witherspoon movie.
Speaking of Barbara, Rita said that she and Samantha are making plans to visit her now that she has finished with the stage play.
Scott revealed Barbaras diagnosis in an interview with The Sun saying: When the doctor told us, she began crying then held it back, stretched her hand out to me and mouthed, “Im so sorry.”
I cant protect her any longer.
And, since her 80th birthday last August, a definite continual confusion has set in, so its becoming a lot more difficult for us to hide.
He added that she comes alive whenever they go out with friends, but he lives in constant terror that she might have a panic attack, or get photographed when shes not looking right.
He stressed that he wanted the news to come out on their terms. He also said Barbara is aware that the public are being told of her diagnosis, but if she forgets that she gave me her blessing, well, Ill just have to deal with that.
More: Soap spoilers
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Scott suggested to his wife that she returned to EastEnders as her iconic character Peggy Mitchell one last time in 2016, and – without revealing her diagnosis – agreed with then-executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins to kill her off.
The aim now, said Scott, is to manage Barbaras illness effectively and sensitively.
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