Barbara Windsor, 82, is moved to a care home amid her battle with dementia
Barbara Windsor, 82, is moved to a care home as husband Scott Mitchell is left ‘heartbroken’ amid her battle with dementia
Published: 16:47 EDT, 31 July 2020 | Updated: 17:11 EDT, 31 July 2020
Barbara Windsor moved to a full-time residential care home two weeks ago amid her ongoing battle with dementia.
The 82-year-old EastEnders star’s husband Scott Mitchell revealed the news to The Sun on Friday, as he admitted he was ‘heartbroken’ by the move which took place following advice from her neurologist.
Speaking to the publication, Scott, 57, revealed: ‘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.
For her health: Barbara Windsor, 82, has been moved to a care home as husband Scott Mitchell admitted on Friday he was ‘heartbroken’ amid her battle with dementia (pictured in 2017)
‘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 fought back tears as he spoke of taking Barbara to the care home, as he confessed the decision left him feeling ‘so raw’.
He added that Barbara’s neurologist advised him to tell her she would be going away for a few days as her doctors changed her medication.
Saying he felt ‘awful’ when taking her to the care home as she ‘didn’t know’ what was happening, he added: ‘Walking out of the house that day was an incredibly tough thing to do because, the reality is, I doubt if Barbara will ever return.’
In good hands: Scott revealed that two weeks ago Barbara (pictured in January) moved to a full-time residential care home on the advice of her neurologist
In June, Scott admitted it is the thing he’s ‘always feared’ and he can’t imagine ever letting Barbara leave their marital home.
Scott, who is her primary carer, revealed at the time that he was told the upsetting development by a specialist after her Alzheimer’s battle ‘worryingly progressed’.
At the time, the theatrical agent added that he had encountered some ‘fairly dark moments’ since the appointment.
While appearing on ITV’s Living with Dementia with the EastEnders star’s former on-screen son Ross Kemp, he admitted sending her to a care home was something he had ‘always feared’
Scott explained: ‘It’s the thing I’ve always feared. He’s basically telling me I need to prepare myself that at some point it may not be sustainable to give her the kind of care she needs at the house.
‘I’ve had some fairly dark moments since he said that because there’s a part of me that knows that most likely is the truth and that’s what needs to happen. There’s another part of me which can’t imagine letting her go.
‘I can’t imagine leaving that lady when she talks to me the way she does and putting her somewhere and her thinking, “Why has he done this to me?”
The Carry On actress was diagnosed with the degenerative condition in 2014 and was being cared for round-the-clock by her husband Scott before being take to a care home.
The actor married EastEnders star Barbara in 2000, and it was previously reported that Scott was struggling with coronavirus lockdown because Barbara couldn’t understand why nobody was visiting her.
Her close friend Christopher Biggins, 71, told The Sun: ‘She’s a little confused as to what’s going on because no one can visit her.
‘It’s not because she thinks ”they don’t like me” because her husband Scott explains to her but she just forgets the explanation and she asks all the time.’
Barbara, who is best known for her role as Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders and for starring in nine Carry On films, first revealed she was suffering from the disease, for which there is currently no cure, in May 2018, after being diagnosed in 2014.
Her husband Scott said her condition worsened at the beginning of the year, and that the legendary actress often gets confused as to where she is.