LOOSE Women star Ruth Langsford has revealed she gets ‘frightened’ over having ‘senior moments’ after losing her dad to Alzheimer’s.
The 65-year-old beloved television host has opened up about her health fears after her parents were both diagnosed with dementia and her dad died from complications of the disease.
Ruth’s father Dennis sadly died in 2012 from complications from dementia.
The TV star’s mother, Joan, 94, was also diagnosed with the disease.
Because of the way in which Alzheimer’s is influenced by generics, Ruth has revealed her health fears after experiencing “senior moments”.
Speaking to The Mirror this weekend, Ruth got candid when she said: “All the time, literally all the time, if I ever have a senior moment where I go, ‘what’s her name again?’, somebody that I know quite well, and I have a complete and utter blank, it really frightens me.”
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She added: “I’m 65 now, my dad was officially diagnosed when he was 72.
“But looking back on it, we think he was displaying signs, we just didn’t know what they were – but he was in his late 60s and I’m 65.”
Ruth continued: “Of course I worry about it with both parents having had dementia, but I just think, what will be will be.”
Back in August of this year, Ruth opened up about her mother’s diagnosis and how she and her family found it “doubly hard”.
She told Hello! Magazine: “It’s very upsetting when your loved one is given that diagnosis.
“For my family, we found that doubly hard as my dad had Alzheimer’s, so we knew what was ahead for us and my mum.”
Ruth revealed at the time: “At the moment, mum knows who I am, she always recognises me and is very happy to see me.
“I know that that could change at any time, it did with my dad, and that is heartbreaking.”
Discussing her dad’s death in 2017 in an episode of Loose Women, Ruth said: “I was grieving and losing my dad but my mum was losing the love of her life, the man she married and had children with.
“They had years and years of memories.
“You don’t often hear people talking about that side of it.
“When my dad went into care, my mum was so distraught…
“I’m sorry,” she said, getting emotional and wiping a tear from her eye at the time.
“You do hope, but you know they probably won’t get better.
“I’m sorry, sometimes I just can’t talk about it. It’s thinking about my mum, that side of it that gets to me.”