Annette’s Devastating Illness
While reuniting in order to promote a reunion film with her co-star Frankie Avalon, she began to exhibit weird physical symptoms. There were many rumors and speculation regarding her condition including people believe that she was suffering from alcoholism. It turns out that she was suffering from multiple sclerosis. She went public with her diagnosis and later opened the Annette Funicello Fund for Neurological Disorders at the California Community Foundation.
Over the years her health deteriorated including losing the ability to walk and speak. She died at the age of seventy in April of 2013. Annette was named a Disney Legend, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in Disneyland Paris, there is a restaurant named after her.
