Carly Simon, 83, Opens up with a Personal Health Confession — And Photos of Her Longtime Home Reveal How She's Really Been Living

The singer's silence concealed more than one serious diagnosis, while images from the special property where she withdrew reveal the private world that helped her keep going.

Carly Simon, 83, addressed concerned fans on July 27, 2026, after spending an extended period away from public view at her longtime home on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Her explanation included several painful health developments, but it also revealed why the rooms, gardens, and animals surrounding her have become so important.

Her Silence Had a Private Explanation

Simon had heard from many people wondering why she had become so quiet. In a deeply personal statement, the "You're So Vain" singer acknowledged that deciding what to share had required time.

"So many people have written to me, kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing," she wrote. "The truth is, I've been learning how to live [...]."

She was referring to her newest health diagnosis, which did not come immediately. Her difficulties initially appeared alongside arthritis in both knees and one hip, leading her to undergo three joint-replacement operations.

She expected walking to remain difficult during recovery, but her mobility continued to decline. Standing up from low chairs became challenging, and deep couches could leave her feeling trapped until someone offered an arm.

There were eventually periods when she could not walk without significant assistance. An extensive evaluation at the Mayo Clinic finally gave Simon and her family an answer: she had Parkinson's disease.

The nervous-system disorder worsens over time and may cause tremors, rigid muscles, slowed movement, and balance difficulties. Although there is no cure, medication can ease certain symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Simon began taking medication for stiffness and other effects, yet she quickly learned that treatment could not make each day predictable. Some mornings brought such intense fatigue that she struggled to begin the day, while others allowed her to work and feel more like herself.

A Second Diagnosis Changed How She Saw Herself

The physical symptoms were only part of what Simon had been handling privately. Parkinson's can also bring anxiety, depression, exhaustion, and apathy, and the singer found that last effect especially difficult to describe.

She compared it to lying motionless while the internal impulse to read, sing, make a call, or simply get up seemed to disappear.

"It is as though the part of the brain that sends out invitations to participate in life has temporarily misplaced the guest list."

During the same period, she was treated for basal cell carcinoma on her face, as People reported. The skin cancer was removed, but the surgery altered her appearance and intensified insecurities she had carried for years.

Simon recognized the irony of being so self-critical after writing a song called "You're So Vain." Still, the combination of limited mobility, Parkinson's treatment, cancer surgery, and the emotional strain left her reluctant to be seen.

With characteristic humor, she described herself as an "all-season bear" who had hibernated through winter and summer. Behind that joke was an understandable choice: withdrawing felt safer while she adjusted to a body and face that no longer felt entirely familiar.

"But I have not stopped living, and I have not stopped working," Simon insisted.

That work became "Comes in Waves," her first full-length album of original material since 2008. Some of its melodies and verses had waited unfinished for years until Simon found herself returning to them from inside her home.

Music gave her days direction without requiring her to leave the room. It also reminded her that illness could alter nearly every routine without claiming her identity. "I do not consider Parkinson's a gift or a blessing," she wrote. "It is difficult, frustrating, and sometimes frightening."

Even so, Simon said she was still writing and singing. She thanked her children, relatives, caregivers, friends, and medical team for carrying her through moments when her own energy was depleted. Her closing message was direct:

"These days I move more slowly, I lean on others more than I once did, and I have learned to accept that every day will look a little different. But I am still very much here."

And much of that quieter life has unfolded at a property Simon has known for more than half a century. It gave her privacy during her recovery and room to keep working, although its hold on her began long before her recent health struggles.

The Home That Would Not Let Her Leave

Hidden Star Hill is Simon's sprawling property on Martha's Vineyard. Photographs of the compound show a life far removed from polished red carpets, with wooded paths, rustic buildings, family gathering spots, and animals wandering the grounds.

Simon knew the island long before she became famous. Her family vacationed there during her childhood, and she first encountered James Taylor on the Vineyard when she was 11, and he was a guitar-playing teenager.

They met again as adults, married in 1972, and made their home on land Taylor had purchased at 22. The original parcel covered approximately 175 wooded acres and became the place where they raised their daughter, Sally Taylor, now 52, and son, Ben Taylor, now 49.

Simon remained connected to the Vineyard after the marriage ended in 1981 and their divorce was finalized in 1983. She later purchased the former marital home from Taylor and renamed the property Hidden Star Hill.

The compound now covers roughly 25 acres, according to a closer look at the property. Its main residence exceeds 5,000 square feet, while the grounds contain barns, a gazebo, a horse shed, additional dwellings, a swimming pool, and a tennis court.

Photos also show that Simon has shared the land with goats, donkeys, and miniature horses. During a 2017 interview with New England Living, Simon walked through the home barefoot in loose denim overalls.

At that time, she shared the main house with her longtime boyfriend, island surgeon Richard Koehler, while Ben and his fiancée occupied another dwelling on the property.

A treehouse had been constructed for Simon's grandson Bodhi, who called her "Mama C." Simon described the boy with unmistakable grandmotherly pride, while her daughter remembered a childhood filled with bonfires, apple-tree swings, and songs written in the bathtub.

Every Corner Holds Part of Her Past

The house began much more modestly. In her memoir "Boys in the Trees," Simon remembered first seeing Taylor's cabin in the moonlight, with its steep roof and tall, narrow windows.

She likened the building to a romantic music box and saw Taylor's reserved beauty reflected in its shape. Decades of additions transformed that simple cabin, although traces of its original owner remained.

In a 2015 interview, Simon revealed that the house still had no closets because Taylor had preferred hanging belongings from hooks and nails on exposed beams. At the time, she was also preparing to add the home's first shower.

The practical oddities carried emotional weight. Simon said Taylor's "ghostlike memory" lived with her there, even though they had become estranged after their divorce.

She was happy to remain in the house, but its setting meant that reminders of her former husband occupied more space in her life than she did in his. That imbalance was painful, yet leaving the property felt equally impossible.

"There's something about it," she told New England. "It just won't let me go."

Simon had considered downsizing, but she could not bear the thought of someone else caring for her trees. She watched for new sprouts each year and treated the land gently, as though the gardens were family members entrusted to her.

Her attachment was especially visible when the peonies bloomed. In a 2018 family profile, her son joked that the flowers consumed his mother's attention every year and that her enthusiasm quickly spread to everyone nearby.

Now, the same property has sheltered her during Parkinson's treatment and recovery from facial cancer surgery. The photographs offer glimpses of the life behind her absence: familiar rooms, well-tended gardens, beloved animals, and enough space to work privately when public appearances felt overwhelming.

Her new album grew inside that seclusion. Songs that had been waiting in notebooks returned as Simon searched for purpose on days when fatigue or apathy made time feel shapeless.

Simon's confession explains her long absence, while the photographs of Hidden Star Hill reveal how she has really been living. At 83, she may move more slowly and remain closer to home, but she is still creating music inside the place that has held her life for decades.