‘You’re So Vain’ singer Carly Simon, 83, reveals Parkinson’s disease and skin cancer diagnoses
“You’re So Vain” singer Carly Simon revealed she’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and skin cancer.
“So many people have written to me, kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing,” the 83-year-old said in a statement to Page Six on Monday.
“The truth is,” Simon added, “I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease.”
Simon explained that it’s “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,” she shared. “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.”
Simon said her health problems began with arthritis in her knees and one hip, after which she underwent three joint replacement surgeries.
But during recovery, Simon started having mobility issues.
“I had trouble standing up from low chairs and deep couches without someone offering me an arm,” she explained, noting that there were eventually points where she couldn’t walk without “considerable help.”
After the two-time Grammy Award winner underwent “an extensive evaluation” at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
Her treatment, Simon said, has included 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,” she said.
Simon revealed she also had surgery on her face for basal cell carcinoma, which made her self-conscious about her appearance.
“Between my mobility issues, the Parkinson’s diagnosis, the surgery, and the emotional effects of it all, withdrawing from public view was the most palatable reaction,” she said.
Simon added, “I do not consider Parkinson’s a gift or a blessing. It is neither. It is difficult, frustrating, and sometimes frightening. I am still learning how to live with it and how to accept it without feeling that I have surrendered something essential.”
Despite her health challenges, Simon confirmed her new album, “Comes in Waves,” releases Aug. 14.
“Working on the music gave shape to days that did not always have much shape. It gave me somewhere to go without having to leave the room,” she said. “It reminded me that illness can change your life without becoming the whole of your life.”
At the end of her statement, Simon acknowledged that now she “moves more slowly” and “leans on others more than I once did.”
“I have learned to accept that every day will look a little different,” she continued. “But I am still very much here.”
Simon rose to fame in the early 1970s for her self-titled debut album, which won her the Grammy for Best New Artist.
Some of her most famous songs include “You’re So Vain,” “The Right Thing to Do,” “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain,” “Anticipation” and “Nobody Does It Better,” which she recorded for the 1977 James Bond movie “The Spy Who Loved Me.”
Simon has two children, daughter Sally, 52, and son Ben, 49, with her first ex-husband, music legend James Taylor.
Her second marriage was to writer and businessman James Hart. They divorced in 2007.
