Legendary crooner Tony Bennett passed away on Friday, July 21, at the age of 96, and now his widow, Susan Benedetto, and one of his four sons, Danny Bennett, are opening up about the singer’s final days.
Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, but Benedetto said that he still remembered his songs. “He could do that,” she told the Today show’s Hoda Kotb in an interview that aired Thursday, August 3.
“It’s amazing,” Danny said, adding that “even just a week before he passed away,” his father was still singing his famous songs.
“He sang ‘Because of You,’” Benedetto shared. “We were getting him up to exercise, and so it was easy to just latch onto the piano. And I said, ‘Ton, why don’t you get up and you can sing?’ You know, any excuse to just get him up. I said, ‘Why don’t you sing?’ He’s like, ‘What do you want to hear?’ I said, ‘How about singing ‘Because of You?’ So he sang ‘Because of You.’”
“Literally, that was the last song he sang,” she continued, noting, “It bookends his career if you think just musically speaking. That was his first hit. And then that was literally just the last song that he sang. So the music never left him.”
EXCLUSIVE: @hodakotb sits down with Tony Bennett’s wife and son to talk about honoring his life and legacy for the first time since his passing, saying that “the music never left him.”
Today would’ve been Bennett’s 97th birthday. pic.twitter.com/BtkokfmDnx
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 3, 2023
Benedetto, who married Bennett in 2007, also shared her husband’s final words to her.
“That he loved me,” she said. “He would wake up every day and still say that. He woke up happy every day. Even if he had had a bad day or night, he didn’t remember it. That was the only blessing. He woke up happy. And he’s just like, ‘Susan. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.’ And he would say that to me all the time.”
“His last words to me (were), ‘Thank you,’” Danny shared. “Can’t say it better than that.”
Today/NBC
Danny is the eldest son of Bennett and his former wife Patricia Beech, who were married from 1950 until 1970. Their marriage also gave Danny produced sons Danny a brother, Dae Bennett. In 1971, the singer married Sandra Grant, sharing daughters Joanna and Antonia Bennett. They divorced in 1984.
While Bennett is recognized for his incredible legacy in music, Benedetto stated, “He didn’t want to be remembered as the best. He just really wanted to be remembered as a nice person.”
“And I think all of the outpouring of love from people that we know and love and complete strangers has proven that,” she continued. “People feel like they’ve lost a family friend, even if they never met him. And, you know, when he sang, he truly believed what he was singing.”
Today, Weekdays, 7 am/6 c, NBC
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