A new documentary quotes David Cassidy as saying he was still drinking in the last years of his life and he did not have dementia.
People magazine reported Wednesday the former teen idol called producers of an A&E documentary after he fell ill and told them he had liver disease. In the recorded conversation, Cassidy said there was no sign of dementia and it was ‘complete alcohol poisoning.’
The former ‘Partridge Family’ star said he had lied by telling friends and family he had stopped drinking.
Two months before he died of organ failure, aged just 67, Cassidy was rushed to hospital after collapsing in a recording studio.
He called the producers and told them he had a liver disease.
‘There is no sign of me having dementia at this stage of my life. It was complete alcohol poisoning,’ he said.
‘The fact is that I lied about my drinking.
‘I did this to myself to cover up the sadness and the emptiness.’
David Cassidy said he was still drinking in the last years of his life and he did not have dementia
Months earlier, after being accused of being drunk during a performance in Aurora Hills, where he fell off the stage, he had told Dr Phil he went to see a doctor and was diagnosed with dementia.
He says the symptoms came on two-and-a-half years earlier, and were the reason for his shoddy performance.
‘But I certainly wasn’t intoxicated and it has nothing to do with why I’m leaving,’ he said of his Aurora Hills performance.
‘Certainly my dementia has a, has contributed to the reason why I don’t want to go out and I don’t want to hear, ‘Well, he looked like he was drunk or he looked like he was’ – I, I wasn’t.’
Producer John Marks tells People that Cassidy wanted to be honest once and for all. The issue appears on newsstands Friday.
A&E will air ‘David Cassidy: the Last Session’ on June 11.