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Marianne Faithfull says COVID has impacted her short-term memory

Marianne Faithfull performs on stage during the 23rd edition of the Cognac Blues Passion festival on July 8, 2016 in Cognac. (AFP / GUILLAUME SOUVANT via Getty Images)
Marianne Faithfull performs on stage during the 23rd edition of the Cognac Blues Passion festival on July 8, 2016 in Cognac. (AFP / GUILLAUME SOUVANT via Getty Images)

Marianne Faithfull has shared she's experiencing “awful” short-term memory loss as a result of COVID-19.

The singer was hospitalised in April last year after contracting the virus and suffering a bout of pneumonia.

She’s now shared the side effects of the illness she has months on in a new interview with The Guardian.

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“It’s wild, the things I forget. Short-term. I remember the distant past very well. It’s recent things I can’t remember. And that’s ghastly. Awful. You wouldn’t believe how awful it is,” the 74-year-old told the publication.

English singer, actress and 60s icon Marianne Faithfull, girlfriend of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger.   (Photo by Fred Mott/Getty Images)
English singer, actress and 60s icon Marianne Faithfull, girlfriend of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger. (Photo by Fred Mott/Getty Images)

Memory loss isn't the only long lasting affect she's had to deal with.

Faithfull went on: “Three things: the memory, fatigue and my lungs are still not OK – I have to have oxygen and all that stuff. The side-effects are so strange. Some people come back from it but they can’t walk or speak. Awful.”

At the time of her going into hospital, Faithfull was recording new album She Walks in Beauty. The record, which is her 21st solo album, is set to be released in April.

Marianne Faithfull attends Marie-Agnes Gillot is decorated "Chevalier de lordre national de la Legion d'Honneur" at Ministere de la Culture In Paris on March 15, 2017 in Paris, France.  (Photo by Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images)
Marianne Faithfull attends Marie-Agnes Gillot is decorated "Chevalier de lordre national de la Legion d'Honneur" at Ministere de la Culture In Paris on March 15, 2017 in Paris, France. (Photo by Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images)

Due to the toll coronavirus took on her lungs, Faithfull also expressed fears she may not be able to sing again.

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"Maybe that’s over. I would be incredibly upset if that was the case, but, on the other hand, I am 74," she said.

The 60s icon added that believing in "miracles" gave her hope after a doctor told her her lungs were unlikely to recover.

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