The daughter of Britain’s former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has publicly admitted that the woman once known as one of the world’s sharpest political minds is suffering from dementia.

In Carol Thatcher’s memoir, A Swim-On Part in the Goldfish Bowl, which will be published next month, she describes the 82-year-old "Iron Lady’s" deteriorating health, failing memory and inability to remember world affairs or even the 2003 death of her husband, Denis.

The memoir was recently serialized in Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper.

Thatcher writes:

"The woman who had dominated discussions for so long could no longer lead debates or keep up with the thread of a drinks-party conversation. On bad days, she could hardly remember the beginning of a sentence by the time she got to the end."

Thatcher also describes the pain she and her family endures often for having to remind their mother that her husband is dead.

"I had to keep giving her the bad news over and over again," Thatcher writes. "Every time it finally sank in that she had lost her husband of more than 50 years, she’d look at me sadly and say ‘Oh’ as I struggled to compose myself. ‘Were we all there?’ she’d ask softly."

Rumors that Thatcher was in poor health began several years ago. Reuters reports how Thatcher rarely appears in public since being advised by doctors in 2002 that she should avoid public speaking following a series of minor strokes. Carol said she first noticed her mother’s failing memory during lunch in 2000, a decade after she left 10 Downing Street after leading Britain from 1979 to 1990.

People suffering with dementia commonly suffer from significant loss of the mental skills that affect daily life. Many factors can cause dementia, such as strokes, tumors, head injuries and Alzheimer’s disease. The disease affects the lives of millions, including their families. An estimated 6.8 million people in the United States have dementia, and at least 1.8 million of those are severe, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke reports.

According to ABC News, readers across Britain called the memoir "exploitive," "opportunistic," and said that it underscores the shame many feel about the consequences of dementia — especially when it strikes the most intellectually powerful.

"It’s obviously a tragedy," Ronald Reagan Jr. told ABC, whose political father suffered for many years from the most common form of dementia — Alzheimer’s disease — before his death in 2004. "But the idea of going into details of [Thatcher’s] dementia are in monumentally bad taste and unnecessary."