Barbara Windsor, 82, doesn’t always recognise husband Scott, 56, anymore as she makes rare TV appearance
BARBARA Windsor doesn’t always recognise husband Scott Mitchell anymore. Scott appeared on Good Morning Britain today and updated viewers on the 82-year-old’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease, admitting the star has become more confused. The EastEnders legend wished viewers a Merry Christmas from home today, in a pre-recorded message. And speaking in the studio, her devoted […]
BARBARA Windsor doesn’t always recognise husband Scott Mitchell anymore.
Scott appeared on Good Morning Britain today and updated viewers on the 82-year-old’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease, admitting the star has become more confused.
The EastEnders legend wished viewers a Merry Christmas from home today, in a pre-recorded message.
And speaking in the studio, her devoted husband Scott, 56, explained: “It hits her at certain times, the confusion; we get repetitive questions not knowing where the house is now.
“She can look at me straight in the eye and say, ‘Do you know where my husband Scott is?’ Each time it happens it’s like a body blow. She realises it and she’s upset that it happens.”
He added: “She’s still got that sense of fun within her. She loves to make me laugh and I make her laugh.
“She’s got that sparkle but the confusion is unsettling for her.”
Scott is a full-time carer for the soap icon who has, but opened up about the ‘relentless’ task of caring for someone with the cruel illness.
Scott revealed he has hired carers to help out, but admitted he is racked with guilt when he leaves his wife with them.
He continued: “I struggled with that when I first decided we’d have carers come into the house.
“If I go out at night and I catch myself joining in laughing and joking, which I should do, I still have those pangs of guilt. I feel like ‘It’s all very well but Barbara’s at home.'”
Carry On favourite Barbara was diagnosed with dementia in 2014.
Scott and Barbara married in 2000 but they met back in 1992, when she was 55 and Scott was 28.
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Scott explained that he always protects the EastEnders legend, who played Peggy Mitchell from 1994-2016, smiles through the pain.
Scott said previously: “When I answer Barbara, I always smile whether that’s the first time or the tenth time, I just smile and I answer as if I’ve never heard it before.”
“It’s better for you yourself,” he continued. “We are all humans at the end of the day and it would be very easy for you to feel impatient at times. We are humans, we are complex creatures it’s hard not to get irritable. So for me, that’s why the smiling helps.”
