Dame Barbara Windsor has moved to a care home due to her worsening Alzheimer's
Dame Barbara Windsor has moved to a care home due to her worsening Alzheimer's, her husband, Scott Mitchell, has announced.
The couple have been married for 20 years, and EastEnders star and national treasure Dame Barbara was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2014.
Scott told The Sun that his 82-year-old wife's condition has worsened during lockdown and that she moved to a London care home in mid-July - a decision that's weighing heavily on him.
"I feel I'm on an emotional rollercoaster. I walk around, trying to keep busy, then burst in to tears. It feels like a bereavement," he said.
"It's always been my biggest fear, that one day I would have to take her somewhere and she'd be thinking, 'Why would he do this to me?'
"That fear has become a reality. It's something I never wanted."
Scott said he's decorated Barbara's new bedroom so that it will feel homely and familiar to her, and has made sure special pictures - including one of Barbara receiving her Damehood from the Queen - are on display.
Despite his best efforts, Scott said he felt "sick" the day he had to leave her at the care home.
"I'll never forget the feeling of emptiness. I felt sick in the pit of my stomach that I'd left her. I still feel like that," he said.
"By the time I got home and went to bed, I just felt desperately sad. It's been 27 years since we met and we spent so much of that time in each other's company. It feels like another chapter has gone."
For information and support about Alzheimer's, visit the Alzheimer's Society website.
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