EMMERDALE star Charley Webb has emotionally opened up about her mum’s dementia battle.
Breaking down in tears, the soap actress, 37, has admitted she has “never felt so alone” as she did following the diagnosis.
Charley revealed in 2023 that her mum, Helen, was suffering with dementia – but the diagnosis actually took place a decade ago.
Opening up about the devastating impact it has had during an appearance on The Life Of Bryony podcast, Charley said: “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so alone as when that diagnosis happened.”
She continued: “To be honest, I still don’t think I’ve processed it.
“They say that you grieve when they’re here and you grieve when they’re gone. I think a lot of people find it harder than what maybe they let on.”
Read more soap news
Sharing her view that not enough support is available for the families of dementia sufferers, Charley described the process as “very isolating”.
The actress, who shares three kids with her Emmerdale actor ex-husband Matthew Wolfenden, has previously confirmed her mum is living in a home with round-the-clock care.
She told host Bryony Gordon: “It’s hard to watch. I really struggle to go and see my mum without getting upset.”
With tears flooding her eyes, Charley apologised before asking for a second to compose herself.
Most read in Soaps
“It’s hard, it’s not the person that you love,” she said with a broken voice, before covering her face with her hands in a teary moment.
Back in 2023, Charley appeared on This Morning to talk about her mum’s diagnosis, which she described at the time as “traumatic”.
She said at the time: “I was pregnant with my middle one Bowie. That was traumatic, trying to get the diagnosis is actually a long process.
“It’s difficult, it’s hard, it was stressful. She had a big personality, she was much wilder than me. She would stay up until 4 in the morning with my friends, so seeing that decline was awful.
“I think she was in denial. She was young, she was 64, she never wanted to go to the doctors for anything. They looked for everything else, they checked her thyroid, did tests because I don’t think they thought it was that.”
Charley said her mum’s appearance had dramatically changed due to her early onset dementia – which is when a person experiences symptoms before the age of 65.
