12 Celebrities Who Have Battled Dementia
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For those living with dementia, or those with loved ones experiencing dementia, the condition can be overwhelming and have a profound effect on overall quality of life. The same can be said for celebrities living with dementia, as well as their family, friends, and caregivers. Bruce Willis, Wendy Williams, and Mavis Leno are among a handful of celebrities who have publicly shared their dementia diagnoses, giving insight to their personal health struggles and raising awareness of the all-encompassing condition.
A broad term, dementia describes a group of symptoms that affect a person’s memory, reasoning, thinking, and social abilities, according to Mayo Clinic. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, a degenerative brain disease that’s caused by complex changes to the brain following cell damage, per the Alzheimer’s Association. Other types of commonly diagnosed dementia include vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, and Frontotemporal dementia.
While genetics and age increase the risk of a person developing dementia, numerous other factors — including depression, head trauma, inadequate diet and exercise, and low levels of certain vitamins and nutrients — all play a key role in determining an individual’s risk for developing dementia. Symptoms can present as memory loss, difficulty speaking or processing language, visual and spatial confusion, poor coordination, anxiety, depression, and more.
Ahead, see what celebrities living with dementia — and their family and friends — had to say about the diagnosis and its impact on their cognitive and psychological health.
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Wendy Williams
In May 2023, a few months into filming her Lifetime docuseries Where Is Wendy Williams, Wendy Williams’s care team announced in a press release that she was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia. The former condition, a rare nervous system syndrome that affects the ability to communicate, can limit a person’s ability to speak, read, write, and understand speech, according to Mayo Clinic. The latter form of dementia, in which the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain shrink, affects the areas of the brain associated with personality, behavior, and language.
News of Williams’ condition came after years of speculation around the state of her mental health. “The decision to share this news was difficult and made after careful consideration, not only to advocate for understanding and compassion for Wendy, but to raise awareness about aphasia and frontotemporal dementia and support the thousands of others facing similar circumstances,” the press release read. “Unfortunately, many individuals diagnosed with aphasia and frontotemporal dementia face stigma and misunderstanding, particularly when they begin to exhibit behavioral changes but have not yet received a diagnosis.” The statement continues, “Wendy is still able to do many things for herself. Most importantly she maintains her trademark sense of humor and is receiving the care she requires to make sure she is protected and that her needs are addressed.”
Bruce Willis
In the spring of 2022, Bruce Willis’s family announced that the actor had been diagnosed with aphasia. “To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” Demi Moore shared in a statement on Instagram. “As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”
Following the announcement, Willis received a more specific diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia. “FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone,” Willis’s family wrote in a 2023 statement published on The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration website. “For people under 60, FTD is the most common form of dementia, and because getting the diagnosis can take years, FTD is likely much more prevalent than we know. Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead. As Bruce’s condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research.”
Mavis Leno
Jay Leno was recently granted conservatorship of his wife, Mavis Leno, after revealing in January that Mavis is battling dementia. The conservatorship will allow Jay to “structure her living trust and other estate plans” in case he dies before his wife, per Entertainment Tonight. While the couple of 44 years have not shared specifics about what kind of dementia Mavis is experiencing, the initial petition for conservatorship claimed she has “been progressively losing capacity and orientation to space and time for several years,” according to NBC News.
Court documents revealed that Jay has been deeply attentive to his wife’s needs during this time. Per the filing, “Jay is fully capable of continuing support for Mavis’ physical and financial needs, as he has throughout their marriage.” On April 30, the couple made a rare appearance at the premiere of Netflix’s Unfrosted. “Thought I’d come to something fun for a change. Everything is so controversial,” Jay told ET. “Just to come to a funny, silly movie—it’s great. I think people will have a great time.” When asked how she was doing, Mavis added, “I feel great.”
Sharon Stone
In 2001, Sharon Stone experienced a life-threatening brain aneurysm that resulted in a ruptured vertebral artery and a nine-day brain bleed into her head, neck, and spine. According to Vogue, Stone was given a one percent chance of survival after surgery and beat the odds, even after numerous counts of medical gaslighting by healthcare professionals who told her nothing was wrong. “I bled so much into my subarachnoid pool that the right side of my face fell, my left foot was dragging severely, and I was stuttering very badly,” she said. “For the first couple of years I would also get these weird knuckle-like knots that would come up all over the top of my head that felt like I was getting punched. I can’t express how painful it all was.”
During her decade-long recovery period, Stone also experienced aphasia, a kind of dementia that results in the loss in ability to understand or express speech. Through regular therapy and practice, Stone was able to improve her cognitive health and has since become a vocal advocate for stroke survivors, namely women whose medical concerns are frequently dismissed by medical professionals. “I became more emotionally intelligent,” she said in a profile on the National Aphasia Association website. “I chose to work very hard to open up other parts of my mind. Now I’m stronger. And I can be abrasively direct. That scares people, but I think that’s not my problem. It’s like, I have brain damage; you’ll just have to deal with it.”
Robin Williams
Robin Williams died by suicide at age 63 in 2014. Leading up to his death, the beloved actor and comedian had been experiencing symptoms of Lewy body dementia, one of the most common types of dementia, which is associated with abnormal deposits of proteins called Lewy bodies in nerve cells in the brain.
Symptoms of this disease include depression, trouble with sleep, movement disorders, cognitive problems, visual hallucinations, and more, according to Mayo Clinic. For Williams, specifically, these symptoms manifested as confusion, forgetfulness, paranoia, hallucinations, anxiety, personality changes, and difficulty with movement, according to a profile by the Lewy Body Dementia Association. “It was very out of character for Robin to be so paranoid,” Susan Schneider Williams said of her late husband in a 2021 interview with The Guardian. “And that was the start of this 10-month drumbeat of increasing symptoms, and the thing with LBD is the symptoms don’t come all at once – they change. So they’re incredibly confusing to the patient and caregiver.”
Williams’s Lewy body dementia, however, was not diagnosed until after his death. During his lifetime, the star was misdiagnosed with and treated for Parkinson’s disease. While the two conditions have many overlapping symptoms, Parkinson’s is characterized by more tremors, shaking, or other uncontrollable movements, while Lewy body affects thinking or memory problems, and the diseases require different treatments. In the years since her husband’s death, Schneider Williams has become an outspoken advocate for Lewy body dementia awareness, research, and education. Schneider Williams also signed off on Robin’s Wish, a 2020 documentary about her husband’s experience with dementia.
Tony Bennett
In a 2021 feature published in AARP magazine, Tony Bennett’s family announced that the legendary singer had been living with Alzheimer’s disease for five years. While some common symptoms of the disease — including disorientation, terror, and rage — did not affect Bennett, other common symptoms were more prevalent, such as short-term memory loss and confusion. “Mundane objects as familiar as a fork or a set of house keys can be utterly mysterious to him,” wrote John Colapinto at the time.
Alzheimer’s disease, which is incurable and progressive, can be a frightening diagnosis to confront. For Bennett’s family, however, breaking their silence about the singer’s condition felt like a symbol of hope and a step toward breaking the stigma Alzheimer’s carries. “He is doing so many things, at 94, that many people without dementia cannot do,” said Gayatri Devi, M.D., the neurologist who diagnosed Bennett in 2016. “He really is the symbol of hope for someone with a cognitive disorder.” Bennett died in 2023 at age 96.
Rita Hayworth
In 1980, Rita Hayworth was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, a rare form of the condition that presents in people ages 65 or younger. Shortly after receiving news of her condition, Hayworth became one of the first celebrities to publicly announce her Alzheimer’s diagnosis, starting a much-needed conversation around the disease, which few were informed about then. At the time of her diagnosis, however, Hayworth’s condition had already been progressing for years.
“By the time she was diagnosed, she really wasn’t totally aware,” Hayworth’s youngest daughter and conservator, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, told Fox News in 2018. “But it was difficult . . . She would look at me and say, ‘Who are you?’ That was heartbreaking . . . She would get angry for no reason. And belligerent. Not all people with dementia get that way, but she did . . . I had to regulate her medication as she became more aggressive . . . And just the basics of eventually trying to get her in the shower. It was very painful.”
Khan credits the Alzheimer’s Association for helping her through that difficult time, and for inspiring her to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease in the years that followed her mother’s death in 1987. “They found me and said, ‘We have this small organization and we would love for you to be a part of it,’” Khan said. “‘We can share our heartache and our pain and also, what’s coming next. Preparation of the disease and what to expect down the road.’ … They were there for me.”
Sean Connery
Celebrated actor Sean Connery died in 2020 at age 90 after a months-long battle with dementia. Only after his death did Connery’s family reveal the star’s condition and the effect it had on his quality of life. “It was no life for him,” Connery’s widow, Micheline Roquebrune, told The Daily Mail following his death. “He was not able to express himself latterly. At least he died in his sleep and it was just so peaceful. I was with him all the time and he just slipped away. It was what he wanted.”
Rosalynn Carter
In 2023, Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter’s family revealed that she had been diagnosed with dementia. “She continues to live happily at home with her husband,” her family wrote in a statement shared to The Carter Center website just months before her death. The statement continued, “We hope sharing our family’s news will increase important conversations at kitchen tables and in doctor’s offices around the country.”
After years as an advocate for mental health care, Carter’s impact on the country and her family remains apparent. Though the Carters have refrained from commenting further on Carter’s condition since her death at 96 in November 2023, they have continued her legacy by raising awareness of the profound impact caregivers have across the country. “As the founder of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, Mrs. Carter often noted that there are only four kinds of people in this world: those who have been caregivers; those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers,” her family said in the statement. “The universality of caregiving is clear in our family, and we are experiencing the joy and the challenges of this journey.”
Ronald Reagan
On Nov. 5, 1994, five years after the end of his presidential term, Ronald Reagan announced in an open letter to the public that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. In the letter, Reagan stated he felt “fine” and expressed concern for the burden his wife, Nancy Reagan, might bear in caring for him as the disease progressed. Reagan died a decade later at age 93 in 2004. In the years leading up to the former president’s death, Nancy became a steadfast Alzheimer’s advocate, raising awareness of the disease in the years leading up to her own death at age 94 in 2016.
Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder died in 2016 at the age of 83 as a result of Alzheimer’s disease. Though Wilder and his family kept his dementia diagnosis private during his lifetime, the legendary film star’s fourth wife, Karen Wilder, shared details about her husband’s disease — including watching him lose his memories and fine motor skills — in a 2018 essay for ABC News. “My husband took the news with grief, of course, but also astonishing grace,” Wilder wrote about her late husband’s battle with Alzheimer’s. “I watched his disintegration each moment of each day for six years. One day, I saw him struggle with the ties on his drawstring pants. That night, I took the drawstrings out. Then his wrist was bleeding from the failed effort of trying to take off his watch. I put his watch away.”
At times, Wilder’s condition made him unrecognizable to his loved ones. “The first signs of trouble were small. Always the kindest, most tender man (if a fly landed on him, he waited for the fly to leave), suddenly I saw Gene lashing out at our grandson,” Wilder said of her husband. “His perception of objects and their distance from him became so faulty that on a bike ride together, he thought we were going to crash into some trees many feet away from us. Once, at a party with friends, when the subject of ‘Young Frankenstein’ came up, he couldn’t think of the name of the movie and had to act it out instead.” Wilder credits the Alzheimer’s Association for helping her process her feelings of grief and for supporting her in the years during her husband’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as in the years that have followed.
Sidney Poitier
Trailblazing actor Sidney Poitier died at age 94 in 2022 as a result of three concurrent health conditions, including cardiopulmonary failure, prostate cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease, per People. Though Poitier and his family did not share the details of his experience with dementia during his lifetime, the actor’s family has since shared how moved they were by Poitier’s ability to radiate kindness, even at the end of his lifetime.
“We thought we were taking care of him. I see now that the truth is he was still taking care of us,” Poitier’s daughter, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, wrote on Instagram at the time of her father’s death. “He was reminding us, particularly in these uncertain times, of the power of GOODNESS. That even when the body is fading and things seem to be falling apart around us, the goodness remains.”
