You’re So Vain hitmaker Carly Simon has revealed she’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and undergone treatment for cancer, but she’s insisted she ‘hasn’t stopped living’
Carly Simon has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The 83-year-old singer said that she was diagnosed with the degenerative condition after issues with her mobility following knee and hip surgeries.
Simon, famed for hits like You’re So Vain (1972), has opened up about her battle with the neuroligical disorder in an emotional letter to fans. The Grammy-winning artist and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee also shared that she underwent treatement for basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer).
She said to People: “So many people have written to me, kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing. The truth is, I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease.
“It has taken me some time to understand the diagnosis, to adjust to it, and to decide how much I wanted to say about it publicly. Parkinson’s is different for everyone, and it can be unpredictable. Some days I’m so tired I can’t get the day moving at all. On others, it gives me a little more room to move, think, work, and feel like myself.
“The problems began with arthritis in both knees and one hip. I eventually had all three joints replaced, out with the old and in with delicate bouquets of metal and plastic. After three replacement surgeries, I assumed my difficulty walking was simply an unfortunate and rather ironic part of the recovery process.”
She continued: “But my mobility continued to worsen. I had trouble standing up from low chairs and deep couches without someone offering me an arm. Overstuffed furniture became my enemy. Once seated, I could feel as though I had been swallowed by the chair and might remain there permanently, like a guest who had badly overstayed her welcome.
“Eventually, there were periods when I could not walk without considerable help. My family and I knew that something more was going on. After an extensive evaluation at the Mayo Clinic, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. I began treatment, including taking medication to help with stiffness and other symptoms. There is no tidy or predictable schedule to the illness. It does not consult my calendar before deciding what kind of day I am going to have.”
Simon explained that she has also struggled with “anxiety, depression, exhaustion and apathy” after her diagnosis. She said: “The apathy is particularly strange. You can find yourself lying there like a starfish drying in the sun, arms pointing in all directions, while nothing inside is telling you to get up, read, watch, write, sing, call someone, or do much of anything at all. It is not simply sadness or laziness. It is as though the part of the brain that sends out invitations to participate in life has temporarily misplaced the guest list.”
She revealed that she battled and overcame skin cancer, but the facial surgery which was required to remove the cancer changed her appearance and made her feel “far more self-conscious” about going out in public.
With a tongue-in-cheek reference to her hit, she said: “I have always been more critical of my appearance than anyone else could possibly imagine (check out the irony of having written “You’re So Vain.”), and this gave my inner critic quite a lot of new material.”
Simon said that withdrawing from public life was the “most palatable” reaction to her Parkinson’s diagnosis and the surgery she had. However, she declared that she’s not given up on life and has actually recorded a new album – and that music “gave shape to days that did not always have much shape”.
She insisted: “But I have not stopped living, and I have not stopped working. In the middle of all this, I began recording a new album, Comes in Waves. That still feels mysterious to me. Music has always known when to arrive. It has rescued me more times that I can count. It is like a cat or dog that quietly appears beside you when it senses you are not quite yourself.”
The star concluded her lengthy letter with a defiant message: “These days I move more slowly, I lean on others more than I once did, and I have learned to accept that every day will look a little different. But I am still very much here.”
Simon’s hit Nobody Does It Better featured on the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me – and it cataputled her to worldwide fame. She shares two children with her first husband, fellow musician James Taylor.
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