BBC Breakfast fans break down in tears at Timothy West’s heartbreaking dementia update with wife Prunella Scales

ACTOR Timothy West has been struggling with his wife's dementia diagnosis.

BBC Breakfast fans were left breaking down in tears when he appeared on the show to give a heartbreaking update on Prunella's health battle.

The couple have been married for more than half a century, but Prunella's memory has been fading since docs discovered she had Alzheimer’s  in 2014.

The saddened husband admitted that the situation "won't get better" as the pair - who previously starred in Channel 4’s Great Canal Journeys - were interviewed by the Beeb.

He also opened up about the first time he realised his wife's health had started to decline, saying: "I came to see a play that Pru was doing in Greenwich.

"I went to see the first night and it was good, much enjoyed by the audience and then I went to see it again and I thought 'She's not totally with it'.

"We went to see a specialist and he said I am sorry this is just something that happens to you when you get older. It is not going to get any easier but we cope with it and we manage."

Despite the difficult prognosis, the lovebirds are still going strong.

The 89-year-old soap star looked to his wife while voicing: "It hasn't really been hard work has it?"

They shared a tender moment as she exclaimed: "No, he is the person I love and I enjoy being with!

"I have been asked to live the rest of my life with somebody I respect very much and agree with a lot of things and argue with about a lot of things quite happily."

He agreed: "I know that things are going to change a little bit, but it has been a long time and we have managed pretty well really. I don't think we ever think 'Oh no'."

One viewer empathized with the family's situation, writing: "I'm so sad & sorry to hear that Prunella Scales & Timothy West, & their son Samuel West, have to handle, & navigate their way through, the bewildering channels of Prunella's Alzheimer's diagnosis! I know, first-hand, how challenging it can be, as my own mama died of Alzheimer's!"

Another added: "Poignant. I blubbed, and I'm a big manly man. They're great, but worth saying Timothy West has big shoulders, and one helluva a heart. Watching someone you love being there yet not there must be very difficult."

A third heartbroken fan shared: "Listening to Timothy West and Prunella Scales and crying my eyes out."