Robin Williams' widow says dementia, not depression, led actor to take his life: He 'was very aware that he was losing his mind'

Robin Williams' widow Susan revealed Tuesday in both print and TV interviews that the actor had "maybe three years left" to live when he was found dead of suicide in his home in August 2014. Williams had been suffering from Lewy body dementia, the second-most common form of progressive dementia after Alzheimer's disease, The New York Times reports. The disease's symptoms include hallucinations, muscle rigidity, paranoia, and anxiousness.

"It was not depression that killed Robin. Depression was one of let's call it 50 symptoms, and it was a small one," Susan Williams told People. Robin Williams was planning to check himself into a facility for neurocognitive testing the week he took his life.

"I've spent this last year trying to find out what killed Robin. To understand what we were fighting, what we were in the trenches fighting. And one of the doctors said, 'Robin was very aware that he was losing his mind and there was nothing he could do about it,'" Williams told People.

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Williams then addressed her husband directly in a heart-wrenching interview on Good Morning America: "I forgive you 50 billion percent, with all my heart. You're the bravest man I've ever known," she said. Watch below. Jeva Lange