Robin Williams' widow speaks about the actor's death for the first time: 'I don't blame him one bit'
A little over a year after multi-award winning actor Robin Williams' suicide, his widow Susan Williams reveals the true illness that aided him in taking his life.
People reports that according to Susan, her late husband had Diffuse Lewy Body Dementia or Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), an illness defined by the Alzheimer's Association as a type of progressive dementia that leads to a decline in thinking, reasoning and independent function because of abnormal microscopic deposits that damage brain cells over time.
"It was not depression that killed Robin," Susan revealed. "Depression was one of let's call it 50 symptoms and it was a small one."
According to the Lewy Body Dementia Association, DLB is a rare disease that closely resembles other diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Because it is so rare, a lot of individuals with the disease go underdiagnosed. People reports that DLB is also the second most common neurodegenerative dementia after Alzheimer's, and according to Susan, her husband's symptoms had shown a year before his death. Such symptoms Williams experienced were anxiety, delusions and impaired movement, which grew worse months before he took his own life.
It was only after his death that doctors found out what was really wrong with the actor. According to Susan, "I know now the doctors, the whole team was doing exactly the right things. It's just that this disease was faster than us and bigger than us. We would have gotten there eventually."
Entertainment Weekly reports that during Susan's interview with ABC News’ Amy Robach, the widow said that "I’m thinking, ‘No one could have done anything more for Robin.’ I just want everyone to know that. Everyone did the very best they could. This disease is like a sea monster with 50 tentacles of symptoms that show when they want. It’s chemical warfare in the brain. And we can’t find it until someone dies definitively. There is no cure."
According to USA Today, Susan believes that Williams' final act of taking his life may have been his way of defeating the disease that gave him crippling anxiety attacks and a plethora of other symptoms. She explained, "In my opinion...there are many reasons. Believe me, I’ve thought about this. Of what was going on in his mind...And I think he was just saying no. And I don’t blame him one bit."
Susan said that she spent the last year learning as much as she could about the horrible disease that enabled her husband to take his own life and plans to help others afflicted by it. She said, "This was a very unique case and I pray to God that it will shed some light on Lewy bodies for the millions of people and their loved ones who are suffering with it. Because we didn't know. He didn't know."
Williams, who passed away on August 11, 2014, in his home in Paradise Cay, California, is also survived by his two children, Zelda Rae and Cody Alan.