Turner Broadcasting creator Ted Turner reveals he is battling Lewy body dementia in an interview with Ted Koppel for “CBS Sunday Morning.”
Lewy body dementia is a progressive brain disorder that affects memory and other cognitive functions. Turner says he is “tired,” “exhausted” and deals with “forgetfulness.” Lewy body dementia is a disease actor Robin Williams suffered from before his death, the late actor’s wife said.
The CNN founder said he was originally misdiagnosed as manic depressive.
“It’s a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer’s. It’s similar to that. But not nearly as bad. Alzheimer’s is fatal,” Turner tells Koppel in the CBS News interview. “Thank goodness I don’t have that. But, I also have got, let’s — the one that’s — I can’t remember the name of it.”
After a pause, Turner adds, “Dementia. I can’t remember what my disease is.”
Read more from the interview here. Watch a snippet via the video above.
Also during his conversation with Koppel, Turner suggested CNN is perhaps “stickin’ with politics a little too much” these days.
“They’d do better to have — a more balanced agenda,” the cable news channel’s creator added. “But that’s, you know, just one person’s opinion.”
Finally, Turner says ex-wife Jane Fonda talked him out of running for president of the United States. “When I discussed it with her — she was married to one politician,” Turner said. “And she said, you know, ‘If you run for, for office, you run alone.’”
“CBS Sunday Morning” airs Sundays from 9 a.m. ET to 10:30 a.m. ET on CBS.