Actress Raquel Welch suffered a devastating disorder that contributed to her death at age 82, it has been revealed.
A death certificate obtained by celebrity news site TMZ showed the official cause of the actress’s death was cardiac arrest.
The certificate also lists Alzheimer’s disease as a condition that led to the former 1960s sex symbol’s demise.
At the time of Welch’s death in February, her agent Stephen LaManna said she had died peacefully after a “brief illness” but the details were not publicly shared.
Alzhiemer’s disease is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks.
Symptoms usually first begin to appear when people reach their 60s. It is the most common form of dementia.
In one of the last public sightings about six months before her death, Welch was photographed treating herself to a manicure and pedicure in Beverly Hills in July 2022.
At the time, media reported she appeared to be experiencing pain while getting her nails done at the J&J Beauty Lounge.
Welch had rarely been seen in public in recent years as she maintained a low profile.
Her last film was How to Be a Latin Lover in 2017.
Welch first came to prominence in a skimpy, furry bikini in the film One Million Years B.C. which propelled her to international sex symbol status throughout the 1960s and ’70s.
Her curves and beauty captured pop culture attention, with Playboy crowning her the “most desired woman” of the 1970s, despite never being completely naked in the magazine.
In 2013, she graced the No. 2 spot on Men’s Health‘s Hottest Women of All Time list.
In addition to acting, Welch was a singer and dancer. She surprised many critics – and won positive reviews – when she starred in the 1981 musical Woman Of The Year on Broadway, replacing a vacationing Lauren Bacall. She returned to the Great White Way in 1997 in Victor/Victoria.
Actress Reese Witherspoon, who acted alongside Welch when she made a cameo appearance in romcom Legally Blonde in 2001, was among those who paid tributes earlier this year.
“So sad to hear about Raquel Welch’s passing. I loved working with her on Legally Blonde. She was elegant , professional and glamorous beyond belief. Simply stunning. May all her angels carry her home,” she tweeted.
A tweet from the official Muppets account described her as “our remarkable friend” and “one of our favourite guests … from dancing with a giant spider, to inspiring Fozzie Bear and duetting with Miss Piggy, Raquel could do it all!”.
Welch was born Jo-Raquel Tejada in Chicago and raised in La Jolla, California. She was a divorced mother when she met former actor turned press agent, Patrick Curtis.
“The irony of it all is that even though people thought of me as a sex symbol, in reality I was a single mother of two small children!” she wrote in her autobiography, Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage.
Married and divorced four times, she is survived by two children, Damon Welch and Tahnee Welch.
