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Widow: Robin Williams Had Dementia

Susan Williams gives first interview.

Robin Williams’ widow Susan has spoken out for the first time since her husband’s suicide about what she believes caused the beloved actor’s death: a neurodegenerative disease called Diffuse Lewy Body Dementia. “It was not depression that killed Robin,” Susan tells People magazine. “Depression was one of let’s call it 50 symptoms and it was a small one.” In the months before his death, Susan says, Williams suffered muscle rigidity, anxiety attacks and a “miscalculation” with a door in which he hurt his head. “I’ve spent this last year trying to find out what killed Robin,” Susan says. “To understand what we were fighting, what we were in the trenches fighting and one of the doctors said, ‘Robin was very aware that he was losing his mind and there was nothing he could do about it.’”