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NEW YORK (AP) -- Robin Williams' widow says his medical afflictions would have claimed his life within three years - "hard years" - and that she doesn't blame him for his suicide.
Susan Williams said the actor-comedian had not only been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a progressive movement disorder, a few months before his death, but also that a coroner's report found signs of Lewy body dementia, a difficult-to-diagnose condition that leads to a decline in thinking and reasoning abilities.
That may have contributed to the anxiety and depression for which he was treated in his last months, and that likely played a role in his August 2014 suicide by hanging.
Though there were many reasons why he ended his life, she said, it may have all come down to one: "I think he was just saying, 'No.' And I don't blame him one bit."
She called him "the bravest man I've ever known."
Williams' symptoms began in November 2013, she said in an interview that aired Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America." They included stomach pain, constipation, urinary trouble and sleeplessness.
By the following May, he was suffering from stiffness, slumping, a shuffling gait and "losing his ability in his voice," she said.
"It's one minute, totally lucid," she recalled. "And then, five minutes later, he would say something that wasn't - it didn't match."
In what would be the final week of his life, doctors were planning to check him into a facility for neurocognitive testing. But in those last weeks, he was "disintegrating before my eyes," she said. "We were living a nightmare."
Williams, who had battled substance addiction in the past, was clean and sober when he died, she said, having recently marked eight years of sobriety.
The couple had been together for seven years and had been wed for three years. She described her husband as "just a dream" and their relationship "the best love I ever dreamed of."
Additional segments from the interview were scheduled to air Tuesday on "World News Tonight" and "Nightline" and Friday on "The View."
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Miranda Lambert made history at last year's Country Music Association Awards when she became the most decorated female in the show's history with 11 honors.
The singer, who won her second Grammy earlier this year, has a chance to add more CMA wins to her resume when the show airs live Nov. 4 from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena.
She also has a chance to win entertainer of the year, an honor that male singers have owned for 12 of the last 14 years. (Taylor Swift won in 2009 and 2011.)
But Lambert has some stiff competition, and we don't predict that she'll walk away as the night's bigger winner.
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ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR: Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Miranda Lambert.
FEKADU: When Luke Bryan FINALLY won his first CMA last year - for entertainer of the year - Garth Brooks presented him with the award. Now, they're the top competitors for the honor. But Bryan will have to bow down - hopefully it won't be too hard in those skintight jeans - to the country veteran because Brooks and his giant cowboy hat are going home with this trophy.
HALL: My gut says Brooks, but my head says Chesney. Both stars are tied in this category with four wins apiece, and both have been breaking records for touring. Chesney has an advantage because he's had four singles from his latest album, while Brooks has struggled at radio. While country music loves a comeback story, CMA voters may consider Chesney an all-around winner.
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ALBUM OF THE YEAR: "Old Boots, New Dirt," Jason Aldean; "Pageant Material," Kacey Musgraves; "Pain Killer," Little Big Town; "The Big Revival," Kenny Chesney; "Traveller," Chris Stapleton.
HALL: There's a clear theme of retro country and cool vibes in this year's album nominations. Musgraves' and Stapleton's records appeal to people who don't listen to country radio and have made a lot of critics' top picks, but Little Big Town is likely to come out ahead in this close contest. The Grammy-winning vocal group hit the right groove with superhot Nashville producer Jay Joyce once again to deliver songs that feel like that buzz after a stiff drink.
FEKADU: Little Big Town is a strong contender, as is Chris Stapleton, but after being passed over for a few years now, I think it's time the CMAs reward Jason Aldean for consistently kicking butt on the charts, on the radio and in concert. Plus, his 'Old Boots, New Dirt' is the only album here to sell over 1 million copies.
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SINGLE OF THE YEAR: "American Kids," Kenny Chesney; "Girl Crush," Little Big Town; "I Don't Dance," Lee Brice; "Take Your Time," Sam Hunt; "Talladega," Eric Church.
FEKADU: If Hunt weren't so new, I'd say he would have a good shot at taking home this award. But Little Big Town provided one of the year's best songs regardless of genre with 'Girl Crush.' The controversy the song received from some country stations only brought more ears to the slow groove, which will likely earn top bids at the Grammy Awards when the nominations are announced in December.
HALL: You want to talk about controversy? Hunt fired up just about everyone in Nashville with 'Is he country or not' questions about his not-quite-rapping, multigenre style. While I think it would be a travesty if Little Big Town doesn't win, Hunt's grassroots momentum could earn him an upset.
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MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR: Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Blake Shelton, Chris Stapleton.
HALL: Shelton has dominated this category for the past five years, but it's Bryan's year to make a run. He's been singing and dancing his butt off at stadiums and arenas all year long, so he's earned this one.
FEKADU: I'm going to go with Stapleton, who's also nominated for album of the year. It wouldn't be too surprising if the CMAs showed love to Stapleton, who has written so many great songs that have been recorded and covered by the likes of George Strait, Kenny Chesney and Adele. YES, Adele.
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FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR: Kelsea Ballerini, Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, Carrie Underwood, Lee Ann Womack.
FEKADU: It's great to see a newbie like Ballerini compete with some of country's brightest voices in this tough category. Underwood will break Lambert's winning streak next year, but this year the fiery singer will add a sixth trophy to her mantel.
HALL: I'm following a different arrow on this one. Kacey Musgraves stepped up to the top level of country artists this year with her album 'Pageant Material,' and her energetic live performances are fun sing-alongs that any music fan can appreciate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are hot but not too bothered by global warming.
Most Americans know the climate is changing, but they say they are just not that worried about it, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. And that is keeping the American public from demanding and getting the changes that are necessary to prevent global warming from reaching a crisis, according to climate and social scientists.
As top-level international negotiations to try to limit greenhouse gas emissions start later this month in Paris, the AP-NORC poll taken in mid-October shows about two out of three Americans accept global warming and the vast majority of those say human activities are at least part of the cause.
However, fewer than one in four Americans are extremely or very worried about it, according the poll of 1,058 people. About one out of three Americans are moderately worried and the highest percentage of those polled — 38 percent — were not too worried or not at all worried.
Despite high profile preaching by Pope Francis, only 36 percent of Americans see global warming as a moral issue and only a quarter of those asked see it as a fairness issue, according to the poll which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
"The big deal is that climate has not been a voting issue of the American population," said Dana Fisher, director of the Program for Society and the Environment at the University of Maryland. "If the American population were left to lead on the issue of climate, it's just not going to happen."
Linda Gebel, a 64-year-old retired bookkeeper who lives north of Minneapolis, has read up on global warming.
"Everybody's life would be totally disrupted," Gebel said. "It will cause famines and wars, huge problems. I don't know why people wouldn't be worried about it."
And yet because she lives in the middle of the country — joking that she'll be "the last one who will be submerged" — Gebel added she doesn't "feel worried personally. I'm not sure this is going to happen in my lifetime, but I worry about my children. I worry about my grandchildren."
The "lukewarm" feeling and lack of worry has been consistent in polling over the years, even as temperatures have risen, said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
"The issue hasn't quite boiled up enough so that people have put it on the top of things they want to focus on," Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer said.
One issue is how big, yet distant the problem seems and how abstract it can be, Fisher said. It can cause people to put off worrying about it.
Renata Schram, a 43-year-old customer service representative in Sturgis, Michigan, says she believes global warming is real and is mostly caused by people, but she is only moderately worried.
"On my list of things that worry me today, global warming is kind of low," she said. The world's violence is a far more pressing issue, she says.
"Usually when we hear about global warming everything seems so distant," she said. "The sea levels are going to rise but I find it difficult to find a prediction that tells you how many years exactly."
White House science adviser John Holdren said climate contrarians emphasize how large the problem is, essentially telling people "the result (of warming) is too scary, so let's not believe it." He said these groups have been "incredibly effective in sowing doubt" about global warming.
For his part, Myron Ebell, a policy expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said the elites on the coast may be concerned about global warming but people in the heartland who dig stuff up, grow stuff or make stuff are used to the vagaries of extreme weather. "They don't see it as much of a problem" because it isn't, he said.
Not so, said scientists.
"We are all vulnerable to the impacts," climate scientist Chris Field of the Carnegie Institution said. "If you are a farmer in Illinois or if you work on a railroad in Alabama or are a miner in West Virginia, there are impacts that are going to affect your life, your health and what you're going to pay for things in the grocery story."
Scientists, however, aren't communicating their worries well, figuring that issuing more reports and data will convince people, said climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe of Texas Tech, who reaches out to the evangelical Christian community. Success lies in finding common ground in humanity, she said.
"More facts are not going to fix the problem," Hayhoe told a meeting of top climate scientists last week in Washington. "Nearly every human on the planet has the values they need to care about climate change. We just need to connect the dots."
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