John Lydon's wife Nora Forster dies from Alzheimer's at 80

Forster was 14 years older than Lydon and had worked as a music promoter in Germany and London

Nora Forster, the wife of singer John Lydon, has died five years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

The former Sex Pistols frontman was married to the German publishing heiress for 44 years. She was 80.

In recent years, he has spoken movingly about becoming a devoted carer for Forster as her illness took hold.

He also wrote a song for her which he tried to enter on behalf of Ireland for this year's Eurovision Song Contest, although it ultimately wasn't selected.

Lydon met Forster at Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren's punk boutique Sex in London in 1975, shortly before he shot to fame when the punk movement burst onto the national stage.

She was 14 years older than him and from a wealthy newspaper family, but had been working as a music promoter in Germany and then in London.

Her daughter Ariane, from her first marriage to singer Frank Forster, became better known as Ari Up, the singer with punk band The Slits.

After she died from breast cancer in 2010 at the age of 48, Forster and Lydon became legal guardians to her three children.

Lydon said he believed Forster showed the first signs of Alzheimer's after that. "A real sadness filled her because that's an inexplicable pain for a mother to lose her daughter," he told The Times in 2021.

"From there on it was small issues like constantly losing keys and it builds up over time. It happened so gradually, so slowly, that by the time it becomes a definite it's impossible to trace it through."

She was formally diagnosed in 2018, and he became her full-time carer as her condition deteriorated.

'No joy comes without pain'

She eventually found it difficult to recognise her husband. After Lydon appeared on the US version of TV show The Masked Singer in 2021, he told The Guardian: "I wanted to see if she guessed, and she did.

"She said, 'Johnny, it's you!' It was one of the best experiences of my life: how rewarding to hear her talk that way and keep her from switching off."

He then wrote what he described as a "pensive, personal yet universal love song" about a holiday they had taken to Hawaii, because that was one memory that stood out in her mind.

"Remember me, I remember you," he sang in the chorus.

With his group Public Image Ltd, he entered it to be Ireland's entry for this year's Eurovision Song Contest - Lydon's parents were Irish.

"It is dedicated to everyone going through tough times on the journey of life, with the person they care for the most," he said when it was announced. "It's also a message of hope that ultimately love conquers all."

Earlier this year, Lydon told the Sunday Times he had been deeply changed by taking care of his wife, and didn't know how he would be able to live without her.

"It's hideous. So pernicious and vile to watch someone you love just slowly disappear," he said.

But their life together had been "worth every moment", he said. "No joy comes without pain and, boy, do I know that now."

For details of organisations and resources that can help with information and support on Alzheimer's disease and dementia, see the BBC Action Line website.