Robin Williams cried every night and didn’t share wife’s bed in last days after diagnosis
Robin Williams was an icon to many, a many who always had a laugh on his lips. But the sad truth about how he spent his final days is absolutely tragic. No one deserves this.
The late actor and beloved comedian Robin Williams was larger than life. His powerful speeches and memorable quotes touched many hearts, reflecting the way he lived and inspired others.
He could make everyone laugh, even while he was going through personal struggles.
Sadly, Robin Williams died by suicide on Monday, August 11, 2014, leaving millions in shock and mourning. Many were puzzled by how someone so full of joy and humor could pass away in such a tragic way. However, there was more to the story. An autopsy revealed that Williams had Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), a neurological disease where protein deposits, known as Lewy bodies, form in brain cells affecting thinking, memory, and movement. This was different from the Parkinson’s disease doctors had initially diagnosed during his life.
According to an article from the Mayo Clinic, people with Lewy Body Dementia can experience visual hallucinations and changes in alertness and attention.
In the last years of his life, Williams’ health began to decline. The man who could memorize thousands of lines without making a mistake started having trouble remembering his lines on set. This caused him a lot of frustration and anxiety. Zak spoke about this during an interview with Max Lugavere for the podcast *The Genius Life*, saying, “It was a period for him of intense searching and frustration. It’s just devastating.”
Williams’ wife, Susan Schneider Williams, spoke about the actor’s misdiagnosis. She shared that “all four doctors I met with afterward, who reviewed his records, indicated his condition was one of the worst they had seen. He had about 40% loss of dopamine neurons, and almost no neurons were free of Lewy bodies throughout the entire brain and brainstem,” she wrote for *Neurology*.
Susan described how Williams’ health declined before his death. It started with stomach cramps, heartburn, and digestive issues, and later he developed a resting tremor in his left hand, which was believed to be caused by a previous shoulder injury.
Reports indicate that the actor’s final days were painful and chaotic, with Susan saying it felt like her husband was “living a nightmare.”
“Nearly every region of his brain was under attack,” said Susan Schneider Williams, the widow of Robin Williams, in a new documentary about the late comedian’s final days before he died by suicide in 2014. “He experienced himself disintegrating.” https://t.co/VOED5tcnku
— CNN (@CNN) September 7, 2020
Williams began to experience problems with his vision and sense of smell, which caused him so much worry that he had trouble sleeping. Later, he developed motor issues that sometimes made him freeze mid-motion.
“Not all of the symptoms will appear at once, like a continuous procession of them,” Susan told the *New York Times*.
“It was like a game of whack-a-mole. Each month, we faced a different symptom. I wondered if my husband was a hypochondriac. We tried everything to manage it, but there were no solutions.”
As his condition got worse, Williams and his wife were advised to sleep in separate bedrooms. He struggled with reality so much that he even asked Schneider if they were still together.
According to Williams’ friends, he was “shocked by how he looked” in the fall of 2013, appearing thinner and fragile.
In her article for *Neurology*, Susan wrote that after being prescribed antipsychotic medications, which only worsened his condition, her husband was “losing his mind and he was aware of it.”
Robin Williams, known for his amazing improvisational skills and the wide range of characters he created in films, could no longer cope with what was happening in his mind and life. Tragically, he took his own life, leaving millions heartbroken. Sadly, few people knew about the struggles he was facing.
Rest in peace, Robin Williams, your legacy will live on.
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