Tony Bennett’s son, Danny Bennett, and wife, Susan Benedetto, are opening up about their final moments they spent with the late jazz icon before he died on July 21.
The two sat down with Today‘s Hoda Kotb on Thursday for their first joint interview since Tony’s death nearly two weeks ago.
“His last words to me (were), ‘Thank you,'” Danny told Kotb. “Can’t say it better than that.”
Danny is Tony’s eldest son whom he shared with his former wife Patricia Beech.
Susan, who married Tony in 2007, recalled how even though his Alzheimer’s diagnosis severely limited him, “the music never left him.”
In 2021, his family revealed he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.
Tony’s family believed the legend’s career would come to an end, but that was far from the case.
“But Tony’s like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. You know, I wanna keep singing.'”
Despite the illness, which progressively robs patients of their memory and other important mental functions, Tony soldiered on and continued to make music.
Most notably he collaborated with Lady Gaga. Their final concert together, One Last Time, was held in 2021. It was also Tony’s last performance.
While he may have performed publicly for the last time in 2021, he continued to sing up until the very end.
Susan revealed the final song he sang was “Because of You,” his first hit.
“That he loved me,” Susan recalled Tony saying to her as he neared the end. “He would wake up every day and still say that,” she said. “He woke up happy every day.”
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Tony Bennett was a legend. There will never be another artist like him. We lost one of the bests.
Rest in peace, Tony.
