The View’s Ana Navarro announces husband’s devastating medical diagnosis she’s kept private for years.
The View’s Ana Navarro announces husband Al’s devastating medical diagnosis she’s kept private for years.
THE View’s Ana Navarro has announced her husband Al’s devastating medical diagnosis.
The TV star has kept her husband‘s condition private for years, but has now spoken out candidly about their “very personal” ordeal.
Ana Navarro has opened up about her husband’s medical diagnosis she kept a secret for yearsCredit: Instagram/ananavarrofl
Ana is married to Al Cárdenas, who has been privately battling Parkinson’s DiseaseCredit: Getty
Ana revealed today that her husband Al Cardenas has Parkinson’s Disease.
Parkinson’s is a long-term brain condition that affects movement and gets worse over time.
Promoting the latest episode of her podcast, Bleep with Ana Navarro, she admitted it was a “very personal” one.
Writing on Instagram, she said: “I share my husband’s Parkinson’s diagnosis and what life has been like since.
“We decided to share it in hopes speaking openly, helps destigmatize the disease and lets people dealing with it know, none of us are alone.”
In the video uploaded to Instagram, Ana explained how she and her family have been learning to live with her husband’s diagnosis.
Fans flocked to the comments section to support the star.
One person penned: “I’m praying for you both! So sorry to hear this!”
She married lawyer and lobbyist Al on March 2, 2019Credit: Instagram/ananavarrofl
The couple have a famous pet dog named ChaChaCredit: Instagram/ananavarrofl
Another added: “My heart goes out to you. This was a difficult thing to share. Will keep your family in my prayers.”
Formally revealing his diagnosis on her podcast, Ana said to listeners: “I’ll just rip the band-aid off and say it: My husband Al was diagnosed with Parkinson’s over two years ago.”
She went on to add: “Maybe you heard earlier the summer, Carly Simon announced her Parkinson’s diagnosis.
“My husband I both read the announcement, and it’s something that touched us greatly.”
Ana added: “And we talk about the need of de-stigmatizing this disease, the need, the duty, the opportunity to use my public platform to talk about it.”
Quoting Carly’s statement about her diagnosis, Ana said: “Those words, encompass where my husband is.”
She went on: “I haven’t talked about it becauser it’s about him.
“I’m a public person, he’s not. He has a right to privacy.
“We didn’t want to talk about it because of the way Parkinson’s patients are treated.
“Folks don’t want compassion, they don’t want sympathy, they don’t want to be treated differently.
“At the end of the day, nobody wants to be defined by this disease. They want you to continue including them, continue inviting them.”
Ana then spoke candidly about the symptoms her husband experienced leading up to his diagnosis.
“There’s so many symptoms. People think of the shaking, it’s not just that.
“There’s mental symptoms. There’s depression, there’s anxiety, there’s sleeplessness,” she said.
Ana then explained how she had started noticing, over two years ago, that her husband was “a little unstable on his feet”.
“He’s a very strong man, he’s been a very athletic man his entire life. Very agile,” she said.
“I saw him dragging his feet, being heavy, having this heaviness in his walk. I saw him when he was holding a phone, his hands would tremble.
“I started telling him, you need to go get checked. And frankly, he dragged his feet, literally and figuratively, to go get checked.
“I would say for over a year. Maybe more than that. I think part of it was being in denial.
“I think part of it was not wanting to hear those words, I have Parkinson’s.”
She confessed: “It is a scary diagnosis.
“It was right after the Biden debate when he froze and had that moment, that I said, you have got to go get checked.
“He came home, and it was a surreal moment for me. He said, Honey, I have Parkinson’s.”
Ana then confessed that she holds herself responsible, adding, “because when I saw symptoms with him, I tried to explain them away”.
She said: “He had Covid twice, he had early stage prostate cancer. He had early-stage kidney cancer.
“I wanted it to be anything other than Parkinson’s. But I think I knew, I just needed it officially said.
“We moved quickly to find a medical team, to get treatment.”
She went on to say a lot of people are undiagnosed and untreated due to lack of awareness.
She says there is a lack of neurologists in this country, and there is a lack of health care and insurance in this country.
