Robin Williams’ Daughter Zelda Deletes Twitter Account Due to Trolls, Abandons Instagram “While I Heal”

By Raechal Leone Shewfelt
Yahoo Celebrity, August 14, 2014

Not even Michael J. Fox knew Robin Williams had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Fox, who’s become the public face of the disease, took to Twitter on Thursday after it had been revealed that Williams was struggling with the early stages of Parkinson’s. Williams, who had been open about his issues with depression and addiction, was found dead on Monday after hanging himself in his northern California home.

Williams was a philanthropist who gave his time to numerous organizations such as the USO and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He also supported The Michael J. Fox Foundation. The two friends — who both got their start on TV sitcoms (Mork and Mindy for Williams and Family Ties for Fox) — were photographed together (see photo above) at a 2004 benefit for Parkinson’s research.

Williams’s widow, Susan Schneider, broke the surprising news about her late husband in a statement on Thursday. She also addressed claims that Williams, who dealt with drug and alcohol addiction for decades, was using again in his final days.

“Robin’s sobriety was intact and he was brave as he struggled with his own battles of depression, anxiety as well as early stages of Parkinson’s disease, which he was not yet ready to share publicly,” Schneider said. “It is our hope in the wake of Robin’s tragic passing, that others will find the strength to seek the care and support they need to treat whatever battles they are facing so they may feel less afraid.”

Fox, 53, stayed silent about his 1991 Parkinson’s diagnosis for seven years before speaking about it publicly. Last September, he described the tough period that followed.

“My first reaction to [the diagnosis] was to start drinking heavily,” he told Howard Stern on Stern’s Sirius XM Radio show. “I used to drink to party, but now I was drinking alone and … every day. Once I did that it was then about a year of like a knife fight in a closet, where I just didn’t have my tools to deal with it.”

Fox credited his wife, Tracy Pollan, as well as therapy and Alcoholic’s Anonymous with helping him through. He went on to found his nonprofit, which the New York Times has described as “the most credible voice on Parkinson’s research in the world,” in 2000.