Tony Bennett’s wife said he ‘didn’t know’ he had Alzheimer’s

Grammy Award-winning star Tony Bennett was known as the ultimate pop and jazz crooner, collaborating with everyone from Paul McCartney to Amy Winehouse.

Sadly the star suffered from Alzheimer’s in his final years and, according to his 56-year-old wife Susan, who took part in an interview with 60 Minutes presenter Anderson Cooper on CBS, the star had no idea how much his memory had declined.

Confirming that he was unaware of his Alzheimer’s – a condition which he was diagnosed with four years earlier in 2017 – she added that, thankfully, he was still able to identify his kids.

“He recognizes me, thank goodness [and] his children – you know, we are blessed in a lot of ways. He’s very sweet. He doesn’t know he has it,” she said at the time.

She revealed that talking to him in the early morning, when he was “more alert”, produced a better result.

“I’ll tell him, ‘Tone, you’re gonna be on 60 Minutes.’ He’s like, ‘Great.’ I said, ‘You remember that show, 60 Min.’ He’s, like, ‘I do.’ But in any other given moment, he won’t know,” she explained.

Yet against the odds, Tony was able to take part in a heartwarming live performance with Lady Gaga in New York, back in August 2021.

The songstress herself said of that moment: “I wasn’t sure he knew who I was, [but] when that music comes on… something happens to him. He knows exactly what he’s doing.”

Lady Gaga, 35, performed with him to a packed out crowd at Radio City Music Hall in the Big Apple – and even in his 90s, Tony’s vocals still went down a storm.

That would prove to be his last ever public performance, as his increasing health issues forced him to retire away from the stage.

His doctor, Gaytari Devi, clarified on 60 Minutes: “His hippocampus, which is the Grand Central Station of memories – and the conduit through which we retrieve memories as well as lay down memories – is not working very well.”

Then, in June this year, he took part in an awareness-raising campaign about Alzheimer’s, in which he appeared alongside his wife in a post in view of his 395,000 Instagram followers.

The caption read: “June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month. #GoPurple with Susan and I, and @alzassociation in honor of the more than 6 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s. #ENDALZ.”

Tony enjoyed a glittering career, winning a string of accolades including 20 Grammys and a lifetime achievement award.

The definition of longevity, he released his first album in 1952 and was still managing live performances almost seven decades later.

He received his final Grammy at the age of 95 – a joint one along with co-star Lady Gaga.

In the USA, he has been recognised multiple times as the oldest living artist ever to hit the top of the Billboard 200 album chart – and by the time of his death, he had an impressive 70 albums to his name.