Diane Keaton's Secret Dementia Battle Exposed: Source Says Actress Suffered From Disease for 'Years' Before Death

Diane Keaton's health woes are being exposed after her sad death at age 79.

In a bombshell new report from NewsNation, multiple sources revealed that the Oscar-winning actress had been battling dementia "for years" before she lost her life on Saturday, October 11.

Keaton, whose cause of death was listed as bacterial pneumonia, had not been seen publicly since April.

According to NewsNation senior story producer Paula Froelich, several sources close to the actress said her declining health had been a private struggle.

"She was battling it for years," one insider claimed of Keaton's alleged dementia diagnosis.

Another on-set insider from Keaton’s 2023 movie Maybe I Do — which was filmed in 2022 — admitted the actress required an earpiece during production to be fed her lines.

"It was so sad," the source said. “(Costar) William H. Macy was very supportive, but it was also frustrating because if there was any stopping— a bathroom break, a meal, anything — it was back to square one. It was heartbreaking to watch. She was just so lovely."

The use of an earpiece to assist with dialogue is a common trend in Hollywood for elderly actors — specifically for those struggling with cognitive conditions.

Bruce Willis, whose frontotemporal dementia diagnosis was announced in February 2023, used this same method to be fed his lines while shooting his final films before retiring, including Out of Death, Assassin and The Detective Knight.

The disease was unfortunately hereditary for Keaton.

In her 2011 autobiography Then Again, Keaton wrote about her mother Dorothy Deanne's battle with Alzheimer's disease as she described the gradual loss of language and independence that accompanied her mother's health decline.

In one of Deanne’s 1993 journal entries, which Keaton shared in the book, her mother wrote: "This is the day I heard I have the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease. Scary."

Keaton discussed in her memoir how the disease slowly took away the person she knew.

"Goodbye to names of places; goodbye to … recognizing me as her daughter," she emotionally penned. Deanne ultimately died in 2008.

While Keaton chose to keep her alleged dementia diagnosis private, she had previously been open about her battles with bulimia and cancer.

The Annie Hall actress is survived by her two children, a daughter, Dexter, and a son, Duke, whom she adopted in 1996 and 2001, respectively.

Dexter was born on December 15, 1995, while Duke was born on February 8, 2000.