Tony Bennett doesn’t know he has Alzheimer’s disease, but still recognises his wife and children.
The music legend was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2016, and recently retired from performing.
His wife Susan Crow has opened up about her husband’s battle with the illness – which slowly destroys memory and thinking skills – and revealed the 95-year-old is not aware he is suffering.
In an interview with Anderson Cooper on CBS News’ 60 Minutes, Susan said: ‘Every day is different. Tony late at night, sometimes early in the morning, he’s more alert, if I can use that word.
‘So, I’ll tell him, “Tone, you’re gonna be on 60 Minutes”. He’s, like, “Great.”
‘I said, “You remember that show, 60 Minutes’‘ he’s, like, “I do.” But in any other given moment, he won’t know.’
Susan, who has been married to Bennett since 2007, continued: ‘He recognises me, thank goodness, his children you know, we are blessed in a lotta ways. He’s very sweet. He doesn’t know he has it.’
Anderson clarified: ‘He doesn’t know he has it?’ to which Susan confirmed: ‘No.’
Susan was the one who implored her husband to step back from performing due to the tiredness he suffers, with his son and manager Danny Bennett previously explaining: ‘His continued health is the most important part of this, and when we heard the doctors – when Tony’s wife, Susan heard them – she said, “Absolutely not.”
‘He’ll be doing other things, but not those upcoming shows. It’s not the singing aspect but, rather, the travelling. Look, he gets tired. The decision is being made that doing concerts now is just too much for him.
‘We don’t want him to fall on stage, for instance – something as simple as that.’
The family only revealed Bennett’s diagnosis this year, five years after he received the diagnosis.
He had continued performing throughout his illness, and only started showing a decline in the past two years.
Bennett released his final album, Love for Sale, a collaboration with Lady Gaga, last week.
The I Left My Heart in San Francisco singer has released over 70 albums in his career, won 20 Grammys including a lifetime achievement award, and has sold over 50million records worldwide.
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