Many believed the actor was suffering from severe depression months before committing suicide and although it was true, Susan told People Magazine that there was more to his depression than meets the eye and that it was not the real culprit in Robin Williams‘ death.
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In the tearful interview, Susan Williams recalled their last affectionate conversation the night before the actor took his own life, and how she raced home from work after he was discovered by an assistant the following morning.
The case was finally settled out of court early last month, resulting in an agreement which Susan says allows her to remain in her and Robin’s home.
The disease, which few people, save the families of those suffering from it, are familiar with, had begun to cause significant problems for Robin Williams – from paranoia to depression, his widow said.
The widow said that she made a decision to face Robin Williams’ children when the actor’s trust caused confusion.
The study, released Monday in the the National Academy of Sciences, looked at the impact of the virus on 49 species from data collected at over 500 bird banding stations across the US. Lewy body dementia, she said, “was what was going on inside his brain, the chemical warfare that no one knew about”.
She described Williams’ final weeks, explaining that he could not make it to a friend’s birthday party. “And they would’ve been hard years”.
“Lewy body dementia killed Robin”.
After Robin Williams took his own life over a year ago, many people were struggling for answers, wanting to know why a man who had brought laughter to so many would take his own life.
Susan Schneider said that following her husband’s suicide, a coroner found signs of Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) during his autopsy. Her husband has Alzheimer’s disease.
Susan stated that she thought he was getting better, but he was experiencing “an endless parade of symptoms” of Parkinson’s disease. The disease’s plethora of terrifying symptoms start slowly but worsen over time, and include: Alzheimer’s-like memory loss and dementia; Parkinson’s-like tremors and loss of balance; and terrifying, schizophrenia-like hallucinations.
“And when I say that, here’s what happened”. “It’s just that this disease was faster than us and bigger than us”. “And that’s it”, she said. Susan Williams became embroiled in a contentious legal battle with her late husband’s children over his estate.
On one occasion, Schneider found him with his muscles completely seized up and his head bleeding because he had hit a door.
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His decision to use a belt to hang himself from his bedroom door was, in Susan Williams’ opinion, his way of taking his power back, a painful choice for which she immediately forgave him. And I think he was just saying, “No.’ And I don’t blame him one bit”.
