Johnny Rotten
He takes care of his wife so touchingly
Johnny Rotten and his wife Nora Forster in New York City a few years ago.
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Formerly a punk, now a carer: musician Johnny Rotten on his everyday life, which is dominated by his wife's Alzheimer's disease.
Together with bassist Sid Vicious (1957-1979), the former singer of the cult band Sex Pistols ("Never Mind The Bollocks"), Johnny Rotten (64), is considered to be the embodiment of the punk movement of the 1970s. But John Lydon, the real name of the Londoner, has long since made its way into bourgeois life. Rotten is currently looking after his German wife Nora Forster (79), who is seriously ill with Alzheimer's. In an interview with the "Bild" newspaper, the musician now gives a deep insight into his everyday life. The situation is "of course difficult," says the Briton.
"She's my life"
"It's as if she has a permanent hangover. I care for her around the clock," says Rotten. Sometimes she wakes up in the middle of the night and calls for him. She was then happy that she was lying next to him: "Fortunately, she still recognizes me. I then stroke her until she falls asleep again." It hurts him how "this special person breaks down more every day". The disease is a war in which you are already determined to be the loser. For Rotten it is still clear that he will not give his beloved "Babby" to a home.
"The important thing is that we never give up on people with this disease," he says. His Nora remains, no matter how ill she is, "still a wonderful person". In the past she was always there for him: "I'll give that back to her now." He accepts that and doesn't complain: "Because she is my life."