Barbara Windsor’s health rapidly declines in two weeks as Alzheimer’s advances

Barbara Windsor’s husband has revealed that her health has suddenly and rapidly declined in the last two weeks as her Alzheimer’s advances.

In the last two weeks alone, the beloved EastEnders actress has forgotten who her husband Scott is and no longer recognises her own home.

It’s in stark contrast to her show-stealing appearance at co-star Shane Richie’s panto in Milton Keynes, Bucks, on December 28, when she posed for selfies and received a standing ovation.

Scott – who is 25 years younger than Barbara, 81 – said: "The last two weeks her confusion is really bad…

"I spend a lot of time explaining where we are – she has a lot of trouble identifying her house. I would just say, ‘we’re staying here tonight…’ And she’d ask, ‘have we got clothes here?’" he told Good Morning Britain.

"That’s the reality people living with dementia are going through. I go through that a lot with her."

Recalling the heartbreaking moment she forgot who he was, he continued, "I was helping her out of the bath and she suddenly looked at me, very scared, and said: ‘Sorry, who are you?’

"There’s no words that can describe it."

He knows it’s now "inevitable" that she will forget who he is entirely, and said he has to show her pictures of their life together so that she’ll remember.

However, he revealed Babs can still rally – especially when she’s indulging her passion for the theatre.

"She gets herself together for moments like that [seeing friends]… when we go the the theatre something happens to Barbara. When she’s out and it’s like her old self comes in and she sees the public and speaks to everyone and you see that part of her comes alive because it’s what she knows," he said.

"I’d been doing a mis-justice to people going through the same thing if I didn’t say, ‘that’s not the reality,’ because it’s not the reality," he added.

Barbara was diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease in April 2014, but kept it a secret until May last year.

Scott said he first noticed something was wrong when she struggled to memorise her EastEnders script in 2009.

And in 2012 she admitted the strain was becoming too much.

"You hit an age when you have to study that bit harder – unless you are June Brown who, at 84, can pick it up and learn it in a second," she told The Mirror.

"That is a bit of old age I have got, ­scattiness. I just forget things," she added.

But once diagnosed, Scott begged show bosses to kill off her character Peggy Mitchell, and her last appearance was aired on May 17, 2016 when the Queen Vic landlady killed herself after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Now, EastEnders actors including Jake Wood, who plays Max Branning, Emma Barton (Honey Mitchell) and Tanya Franks (Rainie Cross) will be running the London Marathon with Scott in her honour.

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