On June 15, Bill Ritter opened up about the early signs of his Alzheimer’s during a Good Morning America interview. The Eyewitness TV host shared new details about his diagnosis shortly after announcing his exit from the anchor desk on June 13. In his recent broadcast, Bill said that he was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s.
In his latest interview, Bill Ritter was asked about the first signs of disease. To this, he said that he noticed it two years back, when he started forgetting the names of people and places. He added that his wife also observed these signs, and they weren’t able to understand what was happening.
“You know I I think the first was about two years ago and I I realized I was uh I was forgetting people names and places. didn’t know why that was happening. My wife also noticed it and uh no one else noticed it. I just us did and so that was good I think. Um my wife noticed it. We we thought, okay, well maybe I’m working too hard. Um so I scaled back.”
Bill Ritter mentioned that he stopped his 11:00 show last year because they believed he was struggling with too much work. After that, he also stopped his 6:00 broadcast.
“Il stopped doing the 11:00 last year and I then I stopped doing the five o’clock and just doing the six o’clock. Um and I was sleeping for the first time at night. Uh in for the first time in 25 years I was doing the 11:00.”
The veteran TV host added that when the situation didn’t improved he decided to get it tested.
“Um finally though getting a decent night’s sleep and it wasn’t getting better and so it was at that moment just like that we said you know what we I got to get tested and that’s what we did and that was really an important thing”
Bill Ritter also talked about his first reaction to his diagnosis
Further, when asked about his first reaction to his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Bill shared that he immediately thought about his father, who struggled with the same disease. He revealed that he was scared when he came to know about it.
“my first reaction was uh I thought about my dad. That was immediate. It just he just popped into my head. Um and then couple seconds later um I was scared. I I don’t mind saying that. It was scary because I thought what wait a minute my life’s supposed to be doing this and this and all of a sudden what’s going on here? Um I quickly I think moved into husband slashdad place.”
Bill Ritter appeared emotional and said that he now had to manage his health issues as a husband and a father.
“Uh I really that really took over because Alzheimer’s really affects the family most and l as a dad and a husband II said this I got to deal with this.”
In related news, during his final appearance as Eyewitness anchor, Bill Ritter shared that he would continue to work as a journalist for the network, battle his disease, and assist others in doing the same.
Edited by Shatakshi Gupta