Carly Simon reveals Parkinson’s diagnosis

Carly Simon says she has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease after a decline in mobility that left her unable at times to walk without significant help, and that she is “still learning how to live” with the condition.

The 83-year-old singer-songwriter, best known for “You’re So Vain,” disclosed the diagnosis in a statement Monday. She also said she was recently treated for basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, after surgery to remove a cancerous growth from her face.

Simon said her symptoms began after arthritis in both knees and one hip, but her mobility did not improve after three replacement surgeries. “I had trouble standing up from low chairs and deep couches without someone offering me an arm,” she said in a statement provided to the BBC. “Overstuffed furniture became my enemy.”

Her condition worsened. “Eventually, there were periods when I could not walk without considerable help,” Simon said in the statement obtained by CBS News. “My family and I knew something more was going on.” The BBC reported that she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s after an extensive evaluation at the Mayo Clinic.

Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological disorder that can affect the brain, nervous system and muscle control. Symptoms can include stiffness, slowed movement, impaired balance, speech changes and tremors. There is no known cure, but medications can ease some symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Simon said she has begun medication and treatment, which help with stiffness and other symptoms, but she described the disease as unpredictable. “There is no tidy or predictable schedule to the illness. It does not consult my calendar before deciding what kind of day I am going to have,” she said. In the statement provided to the BBC, she added: “Some days I’m so tired I can’t get the day moving at all. On others, it gives me a little more room to move, think, work, and feel like myself.”

The singer said Parkinson’s can affect more than the body, bringing anxiety, depression, exhaustion and apathy. She called the apathy “particularly strange.”

“You can find yourself lying there like a starfish drying in the sun, arms pointing in all directions, while nothing inside is telling you to get up, read, watch, write, sing, call someone, or do much of anything at all,” she said. “That has been one of the hardest things to explain. It is not simply sadness or laziness. It is as though the part of the brain that sends out invitations to participate in life has temporarily misplaced the guest list.”

Simon said the surgery to remove basal cell carcinoma affected her appearance and made her more self-conscious about being seen in public. “I have always been more critical of my appearance than anyone else could possibly imagine (check out the irony of having written ‘You’re So Vain’), and this gave my inner critic quite a lot of new material,” she said.

Despite the diagnosis and cancer treatment, Simon has continued to work on music. CBS News reported that her new record, “Comes in Waves,” her first in 18 years, is due for release next month. The BBC reported that the album is scheduled for August 2026 and that its first single, “Howl,” was released last month.

“Working on the music gave shape to days that did not always have much shape,” Simon said. “It gave me somewhere to go without having to leave the room. It reminded me that illness can change your life without becoming the whole of your life.”

Simon said she decided to speak publicly after receiving letters from people “kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing.” She said she does not consider Parkinson’s “a gift or a blessing.”

“It is neither,” she said. “It is difficult, frustrating, and sometimes frightening. I am still learning how to live with it and how to accept it without feeling that I have surrendered something essential.”

Simon rose to prominence in the 1970s, won multiple Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. “But I have not stopped living, and I have not stopped working,” she said. “But I am still very much here.”