(CelebrityAccess) — Music legend Tony Bennett announced that he’s been battling Alzheimer’s disease, a degenerative illness that impacts memory and other important mental functions.
In a lengthy profile win AARP Magazine, Bennett, who is 94, and his family revealed that he was diagnosed with the disease in 2016 but was showing symptoms as early as 2014 when he recorded his hit album “Cheek to Cheek” with Lady Gaga.
According to AARP writer John Colapinto, Bennett has thus far managed to avoid the worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s, including disorientation that can lead to an elder wandering away from caregivers, but said that the disease does appear to be progressing.
“Even his increasingly rare moments of clarity and awareness reveal the depths of his debility. At one point, as Susan [Bennett’s wife] and I stood chatting, he looked up suddenly from the book in his lap and, flashing that familiar smile, asked me in his soft, sueded whisper, ‘How’s the weather outside?’ Had I not known that he and Susan had just returned from walking their dog in the park, I might not have suspected that anything was amiss,” Colapinto wrote.
In a tweet about the article, Bennett noted that “life is a gift – even with Alzheimer’s” and went on to thank his wife and family for their support.
