“Back to the Future” actor Michael J. Fox recently sat down for an interview with People Magazine where he stated that the 35 years he’s been married to his wife Tracy Pollan has been the best of his life. This is a guy who clearly knows how to keep the embers burning in a relationship, because this day and age, making it past five years seems like an accomplishment. Our society does not treasure marriage and hold it as a sacred union as much as past generations did.
According to Fox News, Fox attended the Michael J. Fox Foundation’s Country Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson’s event with his beautiful bride, where he opened up and got personal about the relationship he and his wife have built over the years, revealing how she has helped him to overcome the most difficult challenges he faced over the previous year.
“We just make it up as we go along,” Fox, who got hitched to Pollan in 1988, stated during an interview with People concerning his marriage. “It’s interesting, being married for 35 years. Yeah. I mean, the joke is you say I’ve been married 35 years, and it’s [been] the best 35 years of my life so think about that one for a second.”
“But it’s great,” he continued. “It’s great having a partner and having someone that knows you in a [certain] way when everyone in the world thinks they know you. [Only] one person actually knows you.”
The couple first met back in 1985 after Pollan was hired to play a guest starring role on Fox’s hit sitcom, “Family Ties.” Three years later the couple was married and now have four kids together.
Fox, who has been living with Parkinson’s disease for more than 30 years, said that while this past year has brought a lot of “physical challenges,” he’s grateful for his family and team for helping him “go beyond” those challenges.
“There’s been a lot of challenges,” he said to the outlet. “A lot of physical challenges these days have been different bits, but just that I had a lot of stuff… I had a movie, a documentary and a lot of obligations. A lot of things have been a lot of effort… And so it was a tough year, but a good year, in each of the challenges [that] came up.”
“With the help of family, with the help of people that I work with, I’ve been able to meet those challenges and go beyond them and do new things,” Fox continued. “And the whole thing is just keep having new experiences, whether it’s experiences that push forward, what we’re trying to do and our mission with foundation.”
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The “Spin City” actor opened up about how his fight against Parkinson’s is going, a progressive brain disorder he was diagnosed with back in 1991.
“The positivity is really sincere. I really feel it, and it’s genuine,” he said during a conversation on “CBS Mornings.” “But it’s hard fought, and it’s hard won, I should say.”
“We can find ways to just give ourselves a break, give ourselves credit for getting through life on life’s terms. And, in order to do that, you have to stop and say ‘It’s not that bad. It’s not that bad.’ They say the absence of fear is faith,” the actor added.
After stepping away from acting, Fox made the Michael J. Fox Foundation, a non-profit organization he co-founded back in 2000, his life’s work, seeking a cure to the condition that forever changed his life. The foundation has done almost $2 billion worth of research and has worked to establish over a dozen clinical trials and therapeutic programs.