Ross Kemp has said it has been “deeply upsetting” to see Dame Barbara Windsor’s condition deteriorate following her diagnosis with Alzheimer’s.
The 82-year-old actress, who played Kemp’s on-screen mother, Peggy Mitchell, in EastEnders, was diagnosed with the disease in 2014.
Kemp, 55, told the Sun: “I see her as often as I can – every couple of months before the lockdown – and the deterioration in her condition has been shocking and, to those of us close to her, deeply upsetting.”
In new ITV series Ross Kemp: Living With Dementia, Kemp, who played Grant Mitchell in EastEnders, chatted to Dame Barbara’s husband, Scott Mitchell.
Don't miss the first part of ITV's Ross Kemp: Living with Dementia this Thursday. In the show, he finds out how the disease has impacted the life of his long-time screen colleague, Dame Barbara Windsor, & meets with her husband, & friend of Alzheimer's Research UK, Scott Mitchell pic.twitter.com/Lyjuo9yZzw
— AlzheimersResearchUK 🍊 (@AlzResearchUK) June 8, 2020
Mitchell says: “It’s not the Barbara that I knew. It’s not my wife Barbara any more.
“I’m Barbara’s carer, I’m still her friend, you know, I still love the bones of the woman but it’s not the Barbara I knew… that I live with.”
Earlier this year, Mitchell said the ex-Carry On star’s condition had deepened.
He told the Sunday Mirror: “I have to remember she doesn’t always realise it’s me. Sometimes she will say ‘Where is Scott? Do you know where my husband Scott is?’”
Mitchell has been campaigning to raise more awareness about Alzheimer’s.
Dame Barbara delivered a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson last year to call for better care for fellow sufferers.