Carly Simon has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
The 83-year-old singer-songwriter, best known for her 1972 hit “You’re So Vain,” revealed the news on Monday in a statement (via 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,” Simon said.
“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,” she continued. “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.”
Parkinson’s disease, a neurological disorder that effects nerve cells in the brain, does not currently have a cure. Symptoms include tremors, stiffness, difficulty balancing and slowness of movement. Simon said that she was diagnosed after her mobility continued to worsen following replacement surgeries on her knees and one hip.
“Eventually, there were periods when I could not walk without considerable help,” the Grammy winner wrote. “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.”
