Tony Bennett was out and about in Manhattan on Thursday, smiling beside his wife Susan as he was pushed through Central Park in a wheelchair.
The 95-year-old Queens-born entertainer has lived most of his live in New York City, and calls home an expansive penthouse overlooking Central Park. He moved to his apartment on Central Park South 25 years ago to be closer to it.
Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2016, he retired from live performances in August, closing out his seven-decade career with a series of shows with Lady Gaga.
Since his retirement, Bennett has filled his time with painting, cooking, and seeing his family.
At the time of his retirement, he struggled to communicate and his wife of almost 15 years, Susan Benedetto – who has taken his original surname, conducted interviews beside him.
But when he sang beside Gaga, the magic returned – thanks, Benedetto said, to Gaga’s tenderness and patience.
On Thursday Bennett and Benedetto, 55, were seen enjoying an excursion through Central Park.
Tony Bennett, 95, was seen on Thursday being wheeled through Central Park, near where he has lived for over 25 years
The singer was accompanied by his wife Susan Benedetto, 55, who he married in 2007. She was a fan and 19, attending his concert, when they first met
Benedetto is her husband’s primary carer, and in August, at the time of his retirement, said she was thankful he still recognized her and his four children, from his two first marriages
The 95-year-old was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2016, and the family spoke publicly about his condition for the first time in February 2021
The musical legend looked relaxed and happy in his blue tracksuit, accompanied by an aide and Benedetto.
It marked the first time he had been seen using a wheelchair.
In August, Benedetto said he still recognized her and his children – sons Danny, 68, and Dae, 67, both of them born from Bennett’s first marriage to Patricia Beech, which ended in 1971; and daughters Joanna, 52, and Antonia, 48, whose mother is Bennett’s second wife, actress Sandra Grant, who divorced Bennett in 1984.
Benedetto and Bennett married in 2007, at a ceremony presided over by former New York governor, Mario Cuomo.
Benedetto was a high school teacher, who was a fan of the singer’s.
‘When she was nineteen she had tickets to see me perform at the Masonic Temple in San Francisco and she put in a request to say hello backstage after the show, probably not expecting a response,’ Bennett wrote in his book.
‘The request was sent to me, and it tickled me that someone of her age was so devoted to my music.
‘I not only agreed to say hello to her backstage, but asked her to be my date for the evening, and that’s how it really all began.’
Bennett and Lady Gaga are seen in August, at the recording of his final show – One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. The broadcast aired in November
The pair, who married in 2007, are seen in August readying to leave for his final show
When Benedetto and Bennett announced his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in February 2021, she said it had been hard to come to terms with in the five years since his condition was confirmed.
‘There’s a lot about him that I miss, because he’s not the old Tony anymore,’ she said in the interview.
‘But when he sings, he’s the old Tony.’
She said he had been spared some of the worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s — such as episodes of rage, terror and depression.
However, Benedetto — who has become his primary caregiver — told the magazine that he is ‘not always sure where he is or what is happening around him’ and that ‘mundane objects as familiar as a fork or a set of house keys can be utterly mysterious to him.’
He became, last year, the oldest person to release an album of new music, and was given the Guinness World Record to mark the event.
In August, to mark the final show, Benedetto spoke to Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes.
‘Every day is different,’ she said.
‘Tony late at night, sometimes early in the morning, he’s more alert, if I can use that word.
‘So, I’ll tell him: ‘Tone, you’re gonna be on 60 Minutes.’ He’s, like: ‘Great.’
‘I said: ‘You remember that show, 60 Minutes?’ He’s, like: ‘I do.’
‘But in any other given moment, he won’t know.’
Benedetto revealed that the World War Two veteran ‘doesn’t know’ he has Alzheimer’s disease.
‘He recognizes me, thank goodness, his children you know, we are blessed in a lot of ways. He’s very sweet. He doesn’t know he has it,’ she said.
