Dame Barbara Windsor‘s husband has discussed the star’s battle with Alzheimer’s and revealed the soap actress says “I used to work behind that bar,” when they watch EastEnders together.
Barbara Windsor’s long-running career in the public eye included her starring role as Peggy Mitchell, landlady of the Queen Vic pub, for 23 years.
Opening up about his wife’s diagnosis, Scott Mitchell, 56, explained how tuning into EastEnders helps to battle the neurodegenerative disease she was diagnosed with six years ago.
Speaking to The Sun on Sunday, he said: “She’ll point at the Queen Vic and say things like, ”I used to work behind that bar”.
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
However, he added the 82-year-old doesn’t always recognise the picture of her character Peggy which sits behind the bar.
“There’s always instant recognition when the theme tune comes on.
“Bar comes back then, although the first thing she usually says is, ‘Oh I haven’t seen this for ages’, even though we watch religiously.
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“I usually point it out and say, ‘Look, there’s my wife in the pub’, and she’ll say, ‘Where? where?’ then eventually, ‘Oh yeah. There I am’.
He added Barbra recognises people like Kathy Beale (played by Gillian Taylforth) and Ian Beale (played by Adam Woodyatt), but said “it’s so sad to see her being slowly taken away.”
Scott, alongside actors who worked with Barbara on EastEnders, ran the 2019 Virgin Money London Marathon in her honour, to raise money for dementia research.
(Image: BBC)
Mr Mitchell is currently training for his second London Marathon to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society charity and bring awareness to the 850,000 people in the UK who are suffering from dementia.
He said: “Barbara’s condition has deteriorated since this time last year and there is a very poignant, strong expression that is used about this illness which is the long goodbye, and I think that is what it is.
