Carly Simon is opening up about a vulnerable and deeply personal chapter of her life, and the words she chose are equal parts honest and brave. The Grammy and Academy Award-winning singer, 81, shared her diagnosis in a statement to ABC News on Monday, July 27, explaining that she had spent time coming to terms with the news before deciding to speak about it publicly.
Simon shared a heartbreaking statement detailing that she chose to step back from the public eye while battling two serious health issues — revealing that she has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and was also treated for skin cancer.
Carly Simon Opens Up About Living With Parkinson’s Disease
Getty“So many people have written to me, kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing,” she wrote in the statement.
“The truth is, I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease.”
Simon described the illness as unpredictable and deeply personal.
“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.”
The “You’re So Vain” singer said her health difficulties began with arthritis in both knees and one hip, eventually leading to three joint replacement surgeries. She initially thought the trouble walking was part of her recovery. It wasn’t.
“My mobility continued to worsen. I had trouble standing up from low chairs and deep couches without someone offering me an arm,” she said, adding that there were periods when she could not walk without “considerable help.”
After an extensive evaluation at the Mayo Clinic, the Parkinson’s diagnosis was confirmed. During the same period, Simon revealed she was also treated for basal cell carcinoma on her face.
The cancer was removed, but the surgery affected her appearance and made public life feel harder to navigate.
“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 on Living With Parkinson’s Day to Day
Simon has been candid about the emotional dimensions of the illness, not just the physical ones. She described something she called apathy as particularly hard to explain. “It is not simply sadness or laziness. It is as though the part of the brain that sends out invitations to participate in life has temporarily misplaced the guest list.”
She was equally direct about what Parkinson’s is not. “I do not consider Parkinson’s a gift or a blessing. It is neither. It is difficult, frustrating, and sometimes frightening,” she wrote. “I am still learning how to live with it and how to accept it without feeling that I have surrendered something essential.”
Carly Simon Finds Strength in New Album “Comes in Waves” Amid Illness
Despite everything, Simon has been working. Her first original full-length album since 2008, “Comes in Waves,” is due August 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. It reminded me that illness can change your life without becoming the whole of your life.”
She ended her statement with quiet, unflinching clarity. “These days I move more slowly, I lean on others more than I once did, and I have learned to accept that every day will look a little different. But I am still very much here.”
GettyShe shares two children, daughter Sally, 52, and son Ben, 49, with her first husband, fellow musician James Taylor.
Simon, whose career spans more than five decades, won two Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for “Let the River Run” from the 1988 film “Working Girl.”
She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November 2022.
