The former teen pop idol David Cassidy has revealed he has dementia, a day after weekend performances in California in which he forgot his words and appeared to fall off the stage.

The former Partridge Family singer and actor, 66, told People magazine he was fighting the same disease that afflicted his mother.

“I was in denial but a part of me always knew this was coming,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy told the magazine he had decided to stop touring as a musician to concentrate on his health.

“I want to focus on what I am, who I am and how I’ve been, without any distractions,” he said. “I want to love. I want to enjoy life.”

Cassidy’s publicist said his comments were accurate but gave no further details.

Videos taken by fans showed the singer struggling to remember words to some of his old hits at small venue concerts in southern California on Saturday and Sunday. At one point he appeared to fall off the side of a small stage before climbing back up.

Cassidy, the onetime teenage heart-throb who had hits with Cherish and I Think I Love You in the 1970s, has had drinking and financial troubles in recent years.

In 2015 he had to auction his Florida home after a bankruptcy filing. He was arrested three times for drunken driving between 2010 and 2014, and was ordered to rehab.

Cassidy appeared in several stage shows after his career as a solo singer declined. He played an ageing former teen heartthrob in the short-lived 2009 TV comedy Ruby and the Rockits, and was on Celebrity Apprentice in 2011.