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Danny Bonaduce is opening up about his mystery illness.
In May, the former “Partridge Family” child star shared a Facebook post penned by his sister Celia Bonaduce, who announced that the actor is addressing a health concern.
On Monday, the 62-year-old shared more insight into his ongoing health journey. He told “Good Morning America” that it all started in April when his wife Amy first noticed that his speech seemed off. His symptoms escalated.
“I couldn’t walk at all,” Bonaduce recalled. “I couldn’t do anything like that. She looked really nervous. And she said, ‘You’re not saying words, you’re not speaking English,’ which of course is preposterous to me.”
Danny Bonaduce got candid about his health battle.
(Photo by Bobby Bank/Getty Images)
“We call an ambulance and [it] took me to the hospital where I remained for the first five days and remember very little of it,” he said.
Determined to find out what was wrong, Bonaduce took medical leave from his Seattle-based radio show. According to the outlet, he underwent hospitalization and testing, but doctors never got any conclusive answers. Bonaduce said they ruled out a stroke.
“I couldn’t walk,” he said. “I couldn’t keep my balance. I slurred really badly. I was afraid of everything. I was afraid of my stairs for God’s sake — I was hoping for a diagnosis but did not get one.”
The outlet shared that Bonaduce returned to work after two months. He has been on “The Danny Bonaduce & Sarah Morning Show” on Seattle radio station KZOK since 2011. He’s now hopeful that his experience will encourage others to be mindful of their health.
Danny Bonaduce rose to fame as a child star thanks to ‘The Partridge Family’.
(Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
“There was nothing that said this was gonna happen,” he warned. “Take time to consider your health and what you’re doing. Pay attention.”
On Sunday, Bonaduce took to social media and announced he’ll be back on the radio Monday.
“Can’t wait,” he captioned a photo of himself by the mic. “My brain is still a little fuzzy but that’s never stopped me – or the people who hire me.”
In late May, Bonaduce wrote on social media that his symptoms were improving.
Bonaduce shot to fame as wisecracking Danny Partridge in “The Partridge Family,” which aired from 1970 until 1974. The series, which chronicled the humorous adventures of a musical family, starred Shirley Jones, David Cassidy and Susan Dey.
Following the show’s success, Bonaduce struggled with substance abuse. He’s now sober.
In 2017, he wrote about Cassidy, who passed away that year at age 67 from organ failure related to alcoholism.
“David Cassidy was a god to me,” Bonaduce shared in a column for The Hollywood Reporter about his late co-star. “We weren’t close when we did ‘The Partridge Family’ – I was 10 years old; he was 20 – but to me, he was like Elvis Presley, down to the jumpsuit and the arenas filled with fans.”
According to Bonaduce, Cassidy reached out to him 20 years later and offered to help when he was struggling with addiction. He explained that Cassidy invited him to go on tour under the clause of “no drugs, no alcohol, no smoking and no women.” Cassidy insisted that things would get better.
“They offered me more money than I’d ever seen in my life: $75,000 a year,” Bonaduce recalled. “David told me the tour would give me a career, and it did.”
“When it came to his own career, though, David got robbed,” Bonaduce reflected. “When he decided he didn’t want to be Keith Partridge anymore, he quit ‘The Partridge Family.’ He wanted to go on tour and be a real rock ‘n’ roll star. But the road he chose to go down after the show, it didn’t go as far. He became the ‘Partridge Family’ theme song, he became the act of looking like David Cassidy, with the same thousand fans coming to every show.”
David Cassidy and Danny Bonaduce reconnected 20 years after ‘The Partridge Family’ came to an end.
(Photo by Peter Kramer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
“He never did get the life he wanted,” Bonaduce continued. “It really was a tragedy. I was in Europe when he died, but I heard he was surrounded by his family — Shirley Jones, Shaun Cassidy, Patrick Cassidy. And I heard his last words were, ‘So much wasted time.'”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
