Johnny Rotten is in mourning after announcing that his wife of nearly five decades has died. She was 80.
The Sex Pistols frontman, whose real name is John Lydon, took to Twitter to announce that Nora Foster died after battling with Alzheimer’s for the last several years.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news that Nora Forster – John Lydon’s wife of nearly 5 decades – has passed away,” the tweet read. “Nora had been living with Alzheimer’s for several years. In which time John had become her full time carer.”
That tweet was followed up with Rotten asking to “please respect John’s grief and allow him some space.” The tweet added, “Rest in Peace Nora. Heart felt condolences to John from Rambo and all at PiL Official.”
Back in June 2020, Rotten revealed in an interview with The Mirror that he was under lockdown in his Los Angeles home because he’s a full-time caregiver to his wife.
“I am under lockdown anyway because I am her full-time carer. I don’t need to go out and socialize with buttholes,” he said at the time, referencing the recent quarantine due to the pandemic. “I am her full-time carer and I won’t let anyone mess up with her head. For me the real person is still there. That person I love is still there every minute of every day and that is my life.”
1/2 Rest in Peace Nora Forster
It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news that Nora Forster – John Lydon’s wife of nearly 5 decades – has passed away. Nora had been living with Alzheimer’s for several years. In which time John had become her full time carer. pic.twitter.com/MmQQdtmrjG
— John Lydon Official (@lydonofficial) April 6, 2023
“It’s unfortunate that she forgets things, well, don’t we all?” Rotten continued. “I suppose her condition is one of like a permanent hangover for her. It gets worse and worse, bits of the brain store less and less memory and then suddenly some bits completely vanish.”
Rotten, who married Forster in 1979, first made Nora’s diagnosis public in a 2018 interview with radio station Q1043 New York. “I’ve got a wife now who’s in the mid-stages of Alzheimer’s,” he said at the time.
Prior to making the diagnosis public, Rotten opened up about when he first met Forster in a 2014 interview with The Guardian.
“When I first met Nora, my future wife, we disliked each other so much we were drawn together like magnets,” he said. “She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. She was also well educated, funny and dressed magnificently, with a wink to 40s film noir.”
Rotten and Nora never had any children, but he became a stepfather to Nora’s daughter, Ari Up, who died in 2010.
RIP.
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