Sam Amico
Anymore, staying married to the same person for 34 years is quite an accomplishment. That’s obviously especially true in Hollywood.
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But that’s exactly what actor Michael J. Fox and his wife Tracy Pollan have managed to do. And according to both, the flame is still burning bright.
“I think we really listen to each other, we are there for each other when we need each other,” Pollan told People ahead of the premiere of Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. “And then we also give each other space when that’s needed. Just feeling off of what’s needed at the moment and trying to be there.”
Fox, 61, and Pollan, 62, got married in 1988. They share son Sam Michael, 33, twin daughters Aquinnah Kathleen and Schuyler Frances, 28, and daughter Esmé Annabelle, 21.
“Tracy gives our family everything that we need. Any good in our family, anything good that we do, comes from her,” Fox said.
Fox suffers from Parkinson’s, and much of Still focuses on that battle. He was first diagnosed at the age of 29, not long after he starred on the TV sitcom Family Ties and in the Back to the Future movie franchise.
He received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in November.
“I was told I only had 10 years left to work. That was s—y. That’s what happened,” Fox recalled while accepting the award. “The hardest part of my diagnosis was grappling with the certainty of the diagnosis and the uncertainty of the situation.”
“I only knew it would get worse. The diagnosis was definite, but the progress was indefinite and uncertain. [My wife Tracy Pollan] made it clear that she was with me for the duration. Then I entered into seven years of denial, trying to make sense of it all. The kid who left Canada convinced that he would make anything happen, at least by working hard and by believing, now had a tall order in front of him.
“I told very few people, and they kept my secret. Then there were all kinds of doctors who helped me understand the physical processes that were at work, or not at work, in my brain, as the case may be. Finally, I felt like I needed to tell everybody. I understood it would have a huge impact on my career.”
