Former The Partridge Family star David Cassidy has announced he is suffering from dementia after fans expressed concerns about his health following a performance in California where he stumbled and appeared to forget lyrics.
"I was in denial, but a part of me always knew this was coming," the 66-year-old singer and actor told People magazine. "I want to focus on what I am, who I am and how I've been, without any distractions. I want to love. I want to enjoy life."
His grandfather and mother had both battled the disease, he added, saying: "In the end, the only way I knew [my mother] recognised me is with one single tear that would drop from her eye every time I walked into the room… I feared I would end up that way."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Cassidy’s publicist said his comments were accurate but gave no further details, reports The Guardian.
The singer is most famous for his role as Keith Partridge in the 1970s musical sitcom The Partridge Family, where his good looks and singing ability led him to a become a teenage heart-throb, with hits including I Think I Love You and Cherish.[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"108409","attributes":{"class":"media-image","style":"font-size: 0.8125em;"}}]]
He went on to appear in several stage shows and played an ageing former teen heart-throb in the short-lived 2009 TV comedy Ruby & the Rockits, before appearing on Celebrity Apprentice in the US in 2011.
However, between 2011 and 2013, Cassidy was arrested for a series of drink-driving incidents before being admitted to rehab for alcohol problems.
He "seemed in a better place recently after a difficult period which included divorcing his third wife Sue Shifrin", says the Daily Mirror.
-
August 16 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include football season anticipation, and Donald Trump angling for Putin's autograph
-
5 hilariously cold cartoons about the Alaska summitCartoons Artists take on the Alaskan totem pole, a peace flag, and more
-
Journalists killed in Gaza: a chilling assaultIn the Spotlight Anas al-Sharif and three of his Al Jazeera colleagues were targeted by the IDF
-
Sport on TV guide: Christmas 2022 and New Year listingsSpeed Read Enjoy a feast of sporting action with football, darts, rugby union, racing, NFL and NBA
-
House of the Dragon: what to expect from the Game of Thrones prequelSpeed Read Ten-part series, set 200 years before GoT, will show the incestuous decline of Targaryen
-
One in 20 young Americans identify as trans or non-binarySpeed Read New research suggests that 44% of US adults know someone who is transgender
-
The Turner Prize 2022: a ‘vintage’ shortlist?Speed Read All four artists look towards ‘growth, revival and reinvention’ in their work
-
What’s on TV this Christmas? The best holiday televisionSpeed Read From films and documentaries to musicals for all the family
-
Coco vision: up close to Chanel opticalsSpeed Read Parisian luxury house adds opticals to digital offering
-
Abba returns: how the Swedish supergroup and their ‘Abba-tars’ are taking a chance on a reunionSpeed Read From next May, digital avatars of the foursome will be performing concerts in east London
-
‘Turning down her smut setting’: how Nigella Lawson is cleaning up her recipesSpeed Read Last week, the TV cook announced she was axing the word ‘slut’ from her recipe for Slut Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly
