The singer says the illnesses help explain her recent public silence. She is also preparing to release her first album of original songs since 2008.
Carly Simon has Parkinson’s disease, and Carly Simon was recently treated for skin cancer, the 83-year-old singer disclosed publicly in a statement reported from New York on Monday, July 27, 2026. Simon reveals Parkinson’s disease and skin cancer treatment after what she described as a period of relative silence that prompted concern from fans.
The update matters because Simon is not only naming two serious health issues; she is explaining how they have affected her mobility, her public life and her decision to keep making music. Her statement also arrives ahead of a new album, turning a private diagnosis into a broader conversation about illness without letting it define the whole story.
Simon explains her silence
In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Simon said many people had written to her kindly, wondering how she was and why she had been less visible. Her answer was direct: she has been learning to live with Parkinson’s disease.
Simon said the diagnosis followed a period when her mobility kept worsening. She had been dealing with arthritis in one hip and both knees, which led to replacement surgeries for all three joints, but the decline did not stop there.
At times, she said, she could not walk without considerable help. That pushed her and her family to look for another explanation. After an extensive evaluation at the Mayo Clinic, she said, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
Her disclosure is careful in tone. Simon did not present the news as a dramatic farewell or a medical manifesto. She described a long adjustment: understanding the diagnosis, living with its uncertainty and deciding how much she wanted to say in public.
A disease with unpredictable days
Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder that affects movement. It is often associated with tremors, but it can also cause stiffness, slowed movement, balance problems, a shuffling gait and speech changes.
The Parkinson’s Foundation estimates that about 1 million people in the United States and 10 million people worldwide are living with the disease. It most often appears after age 60, though younger people can also develop it.
The disease is linked to the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine, a chemical messenger involved in movement. Its exact cause is not known, and there is currently no cure.
Simon emphasized the unevenness of the condition. Some days, she said, fatigue makes it hard to get started at all. On others, she has more room to move, think, work and feel like herself.
Treatment, but no tidy schedule
Simon said she has begun treatment, including medication to help with stiffness and other symptoms. For many patients, Parkinson’s care can include medications that affect dopamine levels, physical therapy, occupational therapy and, in some cases, surgical options such as implanted devices used to help control tremors.
Those details are important because Parkinson’s is not one uniform experience. Symptoms, progression and response to treatment can vary widely from person to person.
Simon put that unpredictability plainly, saying the illness does not consult her calendar before deciding what kind of day she is going to have. That line captures one of the hardest parts of chronic illness: the way it can disrupt plans without announcing itself in advance.
Her statement also resists a familiar celebrity-health narrative in which disclosure becomes either triumph or tragedy. Simon’s account leaves room for both difficulty and continuity. She is changed by the diagnosis, but she is not reducing herself to it.
Skin cancer added another layer
Simon also disclosed that she was treated for basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer, on her face. She said she had surgery and that the cancer was removed.
The treatment, however, affected her appearance and made her more self-conscious about being seen in public, she said. That detail helps explain why the disclosure is about more than medical facts. For a public performer, visibility itself can become complicated.
Basal cell carcinoma is widely described by medical organizations as the most common type of skin cancer and is often treatable, especially when found early. Still, surgery on the face can carry emotional weight, particularly for someone whose image has been part of a decades-long public career.
Simon did not provide extensive medical specifics about the skin cancer beyond saying it was removed. That leaves some questions unanswered, including whether any further monitoring or treatment is planned. For now, the verified point is that she says the surgery removed the cancer.
Music remains part of the answer
The timing of Simon’s statement is also tied to work. She said music has been a salve, and she is preparing to release Comes in Waves on Aug. 14. The project is described as her first album of original songs since 2008.
That gives the health update a different shape. Simon is not speaking only to explain absence; she is also explaining how creating music helped give structure to days that otherwise did not have much shape.
For fans, the album may carry a new layer of meaning because it arrives alongside Simon’s account of illness, treatment and self-consciousness. That does not mean every song should be read as a medical diary. It does mean the work is being released in the context of a major personal adjustment.
Simon’s best-known recordings have long been associated with wit, mystery, longing and emotional precision. Her latest disclosure puts that familiar voice in a more vulnerable setting: an artist describing what it means to keep working when the body has become less predictable.
What remains private
Public health disclosures by famous artists often create a tension between concern and entitlement. Simon has shared significant information, but she has not invited a full medical audit.
What is known is limited but meaningful:
- Simon says she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s after extensive evaluation at the Mayo Clinic.
- She says she has started treatment, including medication for stiffness and other symptoms.
- She says she was treated for basal cell carcinoma on her face and that surgery removed the cancer.
- She says both conditions have shaped her public absence and her feelings about being seen.
- She is scheduled to release Comes in Waves on Aug. 14.
What remains unclear includes how Simon’s condition may affect future public appearances, whether she plans to perform, and how much more she wants to say about her health. Those are choices she appears to be making deliberately, after taking time to adjust.
The strongest takeaway from Simon’s statement is not simply that she has two diagnoses. It is that she is defining the terms of her return to public view: honest about the limits Parkinson’s and surgery have placed on her, but equally clear that illness has not become the whole of her life.
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