Scott Mitchell has revealed he is still “haunted” by the memory of Dame Barbara Windsor’s devastating decline, as he marks five years since the death of the much-loved EastEnders icon.
Mr Mitchell, 62, spoke movingly about the trauma of watching his wife lose herself to Alzheimer’s disease, reflecting on moments that still cause him immense pain.
“I wish I never had to experience the terror in Barbara’s eyes, when she didn’t know where she was, who I was, who she was,” he told the Daily Mirror.
“That haunts me. No human being should have to leave this world in the way those suffering with dementia do. Nobody.”
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Barbara Windsor with Scott Mitchell in 2016
|GETTY
Ms Windsor, famed for playing Peggy Mitchell for more than two decades, died in 2020 aged 83, six years after her diagnosis.
Mr Mitchell admitted witnessing the illness up close has left him terrified of developing dementia himself.
Despite the grief, he said he continues to feel Ms Windsor's presence through what he believes are signs she sends him.
“I got lost in the hotel at a literary festival in Gibraltar and found myself in the Windsor Room,” he recalled.
Dame Barbara Windsor passed away from Alzheimer's disease in 2020
|GETTY
“And the other weekend I stayed on a housebarge… the boat was called Little Babs. One of the other boats in the marina was called Peggy!”
Mr Mitchell regularly visits her resting place at Golders Green Crematorium, where a plaque chosen by Barbara reads: “She was a good bird.”
“We have a nice little chat,” he said. “Your loved ones are always with you… I believe our loved ones are around us.”
Mr Mitchell has since found happiness again with actress Tanya Franks, who played Rainie Cross in EastEnders.
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Scott Mitchell and Tanya Franks made their relationship official in July 2023
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The pair became close while training for the London Marathon to raise money for Alzheimer’s causes in Ms Windsor's name.
“We forged an incredible friendship over the four years and something wonderful blossomed out of it,” he said on This Morning.
Although Mr Franks and Ms Windsor never overlapped on the soap, the two met during marathon preparations.
Mr Mitchell said Ms Windsor liked her immediately: “She’d say, ‘She asks sensible questions about acting.’ Tanya knew her stuff and that meant a lot to Barbara.”
However, Mr Mitchell said moving on has made him a target for criticism.
“There’s always that person that says, ‘That was quick!’ It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and cast judgement… These people forget their words can really hurt,” he told the Mirror.
He previously said on White Wine Question Time: “People don’t know the pain. They don’t know what the grief has been.”
Mr Franks, whose stepfather died last year after an 11-year battle with Alzheimer’s, has offered him unwavering support.
“She allows me to talk about Barbara any time I need to… I’m never second-guessing if the moment’s right,” he said.
Dame Barbara Windsor played Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders from 1994 to 2010, and then sporadically from 2013 to 2016, making her time on the show over two decades
|BBC
Mr Mitchell continues to champion dementia awareness through his role as People’s Champion of the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals Programme, established under Boris Johnson and reaffirmed by the current government.
The initiative was recently referenced in the 10-year health plan, an honour Mr Mitchell says would mean the world to Ms Windsor.
He has also expanded his charitable focus beyond Alzheimer’s Research UK, pledging to support any dementia organisation where Ms Windsor's name “would be an appropriate fit".
“I know I can’t save the world, nor can Barbara’s name, but we can make a difference.
"And people desperately need to know help is on the way,” he said.
Looking to the future, Mr Mitchell said his hope is simple: “That Barbara’s memory continues to make a huge impact. And that everyone remembers her with a smile.”
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