Robin Williams’ widow said the actor had health problems that would have killed him within three years if he had not ended his own life.
In her first interview since the comedian died in August 2014, Susan Williams said her husband was “disintegrating before my eyes” in the weeks before his death.
“We were living a nightmare,” Susan Williams told ABC’s Good Morning America.
Robin Williams had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and had signs of a condition known as dementia with Lewy bodies.
The condition is caused by deposits of an abnormal protein called Lewy bodies inside brain cells, which disrupt the brain’s normal functions.
According to experts, the condition can interfere with memory, judgement, movement, concentration and visual perception.
“If Robin was lucky, he would’ve had maybe three years left,” she said.
“And they would’ve been hard years. And it’s a good chance he would’ve been locked up.”
Robin Williams was “completely clean and sober” when he died, Susan Williams said, but was struggling with depression and anxiety.
His physical symptoms included stiffness, slumping, a shuffling gait and “losing his ability in his voice”, his widow said.
“It’s one minute, totally lucid… And then five minutes later, he would say something that wasn’t… it didn’t match.”
Robin Williams was dealing with his problems as well as he could, she said, describing him as “the bravest man I’ve ever known”.
“But the last month he could not. It was like the dam broke.”
Asked whether her husband’s suicide was his way of taking back control, Susan Williams replied: “In my opinion, oh, yeah.
“I mean, there are many reasons. Believe me. I’ve thought about this. Of what was going on in his mind, what made him ultimately commit… you know, to do that act.
“And I think he was just saying, <<No>>. And I don’t blame him one bit. I don’t blame him one bit.”
Robin Williams died on August 11, 2014 at the age of 63.
