Dame Barbara Windsor’s husband Scott Mitchell has shared his concerns that she may need to move into a care home as her Alzheimer’s has worsened.

The EastEnders legend went public with her condition in 2018, having been diagnosed four years earlier, and since then, Scott has been candid about how the disease has affected her.

As part of a new documentary by Dame Barbara’s former on-screen son Ross Kemp, titled Living With Dementia, Scott revealed that a specialist had warned him that the actress could need to move to a care home in the future, which he said is “the thing I’ve always feared”.

“He’s basically telling me I need to prepare myself that at some point it may not be sustainable to give her the kind of care she needs at the house,” Scott said.

“I’ve had some fairly dark moments since he said that because there’s a part of me that knows that most likely is the truth and that’s what needs to happen.”

He added: “There’s another part of me which can’t imagine letting her go. I can’t imagine leaving that lady when she talks to me the way she does and putting her somewhere and her thinking, ‘Why has he done this to me?’.”

After filming his new documentary, Ross said that seeing “the deterioration” in his former co-star’s condition had been “shocking and, to those of us close to her, deeply upsetting”.

In a first-person piece published last week, he said: “I’ve been in Barbara Windsor’s house for just a few minutes. I’m sitting down with a cup of tea and a biscuit with my friend of three decades. I’m taken aback, but I can’t show it.

“When I arrived, she greeted me with a hug, as one of her ­closest friends… But now she clearly has no idea who I am.”

Scott Mitchell also said at the time: “It’s not the Barbara that I knew. It’s not my wife Barbara any more.

“I’m Barbara’s carer. I’m still her friend, you know, I still love the bones of the woman but it’s not the Barbara I knew… that I live with.”

Ross Kemp: Living With Dementia continues tonight on ITV at 7.30pm.