Michael J. Fox is known around the world for his advocacy for people living with Parkinson’s, but it hasn’t always been easy for the actor — or his wife.
“It was h*** on Tracy [Pollan, Fox’s wife of 38 years], it was really hard on her — and it still is because it’s always changing,” the BACK TO THE FUTURE star told The Hollywood Reporter of going public with his diagnosis. “But I said to her, ‘I have to go all the way here. No half measures.’”
Fox continued, “I started to understand what it was like for these people who didn’t have the options or the choices I had, didn’t have the connections and the reason to be optimistic. … I needed to normalize it and just be that all the time. I said, ‘I have to not hide this.’”
Related: How Michael J. Fox Takes ‘Each Day as It Comes’ Amid Parkinson’s Battle
“We just take it one day at a time, and it’s worked,” Pollan told PEOPLE in a 2025 interview. “Michael was diagnosed before [our daughters] were born and very, very early into [our son] Sam’s life, so it’s kind of all they know really. And they’re just incredibly supportive. They’re very helpful to me. I lean on them a lot.”
Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991, at just 29 years old. He publicly disclosed his diagnosis in 1998, founding the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research shortly after.
“I went online and into Parkinson’s chat rooms, and I would go in anonymously, and would ask, ‘What do you think of this Michael Fox thing?’” he told Time about the days following his announcement. “And they would say, ‘It’s great.’ I would think, ‘You’re celebrating my having Parkinson’s.’ But then I got it, and realized these people were stuck in the rocking chair on the porch for all this time to just whittle away until they can’t move, and never had a part in solving their problems.”
He continued, “The more I thought about it, the more I thought it was a privilege, and in a way, a gift. It’s a gift that keeps on taking, but if I look at the positive side of it…this is a role that I fell into and I found myself uniquely qualified to fulfill. Now people say, ‘I have what Michael Fox has.’ Parkinson’s patients now have an identity, and they don’t have shame.”
While Fox’s Parkinson’s has been hard on both him and his family, the actor’s openness about his diagnosis has inspired and encouraged millions around the world.
Read Next: Michael J. Fox Continues His Fight to Cure Parkinson’s Disease: ‘Get It Done’
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
