Robin Williams' widow says doctors ordered them to sleep separately as tragic final days revealed in new documentary
The wife of late comedian Robin Williams has shed some details into the comedian's tragic last days.
In an interview with the US Today show, Susan Schneider Williams said the couple were ordered to sleep in separate beds for medical reasons. At the time, the comedian was struggling with insomnia and separate beds meant he could get a better night's sleep. But he was still heartbroken when Susan told him it was doctor's orders.
Robin William and Susan attend the 2012 Comedy Awards in New York City. Getty
"He said to me, 'Does this mean we're separated?'" the 56-year-old artist recalled to host Hoda Kotb. "That was a really shocking moment. When your best friend, your partner, your love — you realise that there's a giant chasm somewhere, and you can't see where it is but that's just not based in reality. That was a hard moment."
Robin would later take his own life in 2014 inside the couple's home in Tiburon, in the San Francisco Bay area. He was 63.
READ MORE: A look back at Robin Williams' memorable film and TV roles
It was speculated at the time that the comedian suffered from depression and was burdened by financial stress. He was also said to have been battling Parkinson's disease.
It wasn't until years after his death that doctors discovered Robin was misdiagnosed. It wasn't Parkinson's he was grappling with, it was Lewy body dementia — a type of brain disease that causes a decline in thinking, reasoning and movement because of damaged brain cells. This, Susan believes, is what ultimately led to his suicide.
"Robin and I knew there was so much more going on," she said. "Robin was right when he said to me, 'I just want to reboot my brain.' In that moment, I promised him that we would get to the bottom of this. I just didn't know that would be after he passed."
The couple in the early stages of their relationship in 2010. They later married in 2011. Getty
In honour of her husband, Susan works to promote awareness for brain disease, and this week took part in a documentary, Robin's Wish, to help tell the true story behind her husband's death.
"We had been discussing what we wanted our legacies to be in life; when it was our time to go, how we wanted to have made people feel," she revealed in the documentary.
"Without missing a beat, Robin said, 'I want to help people be less afraid.'"
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