Sex Pistols star John Lydon has devoted himself to looking after his beloved wife Nora Foster who is living with Alzheimers disease after he refused to put her into specialist care
Sex Pistols star John Lydon has opened up about his wife’s battle with Alzheimers, admitting: “It makes us love one another even more.
John, who fronted the punk band as Johnny Rotten, has devoted himself to care around the clock for Nora Foster, who he affectionately calls Babbie.
The musician, who has been with 78-year-old Nora for 45 years, admitted he is worried about leaving her in Los Angeles when he undertakes a book tour in the UK next month.
The star is touring his book I Could Be Wrong, I Could be Right from September 7 after being forced to postpone it for a year due to Covid.
Writing in it, he admits: “It’s gonna involve a lot of heartache. I need to have monitors in the home. Being away for lengths of time will be tough and I need to make that as brief as possible.
“You can’t take situations like my domestic situation on the road, it’s not gonna work. I’ve tried and it drove everybody insane.”
He told how Nora now needs “24/7 attention” with her Alzheimer’s, adding: “That’s my duty and I’m more than happy to do that.
“It’s difficult when there’s a workload, but I have to cope with it.”
In the book he opens up about his life caring for Nora, saying he was determined to look after her himself and not put her into specialist care.
He says: “We’re not dealing with the walking dead. It’s a matter of memory fusing in and out.
“I had those issues when I was younger, coming out of meningitis. So I’m absolutely in the right place for it. It makes us love one another even more, no question.
“We’d never be: ‘Oh dear, time to lock you away’. No.”
But locating advice as to how to cope with the mental decline of his “significant other” has not been easy.
He adds: “It’s tough to deal with advice from people who absolutely mean well. But I have people who talk to me about their mother or their aunt, who are going through dementia. And it’s not the same for me because Nora’s my significant other. It’s a huge world of difference. And there’s no real literature out there or expert advice to help me.”
Lydon said the couple enjoy watching old comedies on television.
“We find a place in comedy,” he sayd. “We’ve always had a good sense of humour. That’s absolutely vital. I think humour keeps you smart.”
Born into a wealthy German newspaper family, Nora was working as a music promoter in London when she met John, and they married in 1979.
She had a daughter Ari, who she took with her to Sex Pistols shows and Ari later formed punk band The Slits.
However she died in 2010 from breast cancer, aged just 48.
John has previously told how he believes that moment was when Nora’s condition began to worsen, equating it to a “permanent hangover”.https://get-latest.convrse.media/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirror.co.uk%2F3am%2Fcelebrity-news%2Fsex-pistols-john-lydon-says-24749029%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR20BvImo65ZOBevBBNZD3QSCD_a_1F2_l02A-C_7kIF_K7xOXWfEe0qkWc&cre=bottom&cip=26&view=web
They publicly revealed her Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2018.
John, 65, who has suffered eye problems since a childhood battle with meningitis, will not even leave Nora’s side long enough to go to the optician with his worsening vision.
Instead he stays with her at their home in the seaside Los Angeles suburb of Marina del Rey. He says: “Alzheimer’s is dreadful. She has to relearn things every day and you must never lose your patience with it.
“No matter how many times you ask the same question, give the right answer. Don’t fob them off. I’m learning a lot about myself this way. It’s a strange blessing, I suppose, because oddly enough it’s bringing us closer together.
“And I don’t mind the demand for attention from her. It’s absolutely essential for her to maintain her integrity. There’s no thought at all about homes or any of that, most definitely not at this point. I mean institutions, where they just lock them away and ignore them and wait for them to die pitifully. Oh, God, not for me, thank you.
“Babbie needs my help and I’m more than willing to give it.”