Carly Simon Shares Parkinson’s Disease & Cancer Diagnoses

“You’re So Vain” singer Carly Simon is opening up about her health, and why she has retreated from the spotlight over the years.

In a statement on People magazine, Simon revealed her Parkinson’s disease and cancer diagnoses.

Simon, 83, shared, “So many people have written to me, kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing. The truth is, I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease.”

“It has 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. 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,” Carly went on. 

Carly revealed that it started with arthritis and several replacement surgeries, but she was still struggling to walk and move.

She noted, “Eventually, there were periods when I could not walk without considerable help. My family and I knew that something more was going on. After an extensive evaluation at the Mayo Clinic, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.”

While she has been taking medicine for the disease, it’s still a struggle.

She explained, “Parkinson’s is usually associated with movement, tremors, and balance, but it can affect much more than the body. It can bring anxiety, depression, exhaustion, and apathy. The apathy is particularly strange. You can find yourself lying there like a starfish drying in the sun, arms pointing in all directions, while nothing inside is telling you to get up, read, watch, write, sing, call someone, or do much of anything at all.”

Then came her skin cancer diagnosis.

She shared, “During this same period, I was also treated for basal cell carcinoma on my face. The cancer was removed, but the surgery affected my appearance and made me more self-conscious about being seen in public. I have always been more critical of my appearance than anyone else could possibly imagine (check out the irony of having written ‘You’re So Vain.’), and this gave my inner critic quite a lot of new material.” 

“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,” Carly elaborated. “If a person is allowed to hibernate during both winter and summer, then I have become an all-season bear.”

Despite her health struggles, Simon insists, "But I have not stopped living, and I have not stopped working."

She said, “I am still writing, singing, imagining, laughing, worrying, remembering, and occasionally getting trapped in an overstuffed chair.”

Amidst everything, Carly worked on “Comes in Waves,” her first album in 18 years.  Music has helped her give shape to days “that did not always have much shape.”

She added, “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.”

Along with thanking her family, friends, and caregivers, she ended her lengthy statement, saying, “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.”