Many of us have been following Michael J Fox for many years. We watched him when he was on the television show, ‘Family Ties’ and we loved him in the movie, Back to the Future.
Although we recognize Michael J Fox as one of the greatest actors of our time, he also has someone with him who is always by his side. It is his wife of more than 30 years and she has stood by him through the good times and the bad times.
Even before Michael J Fox met his wife, he had some difficulties. As a Canadian, he struggled after he moved to the United States.
He said: “It was a tough few years. We didn’t have a lot of money. I was dumpster diving because I knew the grocery store would throw baked goods out. We’d steal jam and peanut butter from the IHOP or Denny’s. It was a tough existence.”
This all changed, however, and he describes it, saying: “In a relatively short period of time, I was famous and I was the biggest movie star in the world… It was crazy. It made no sense.”
When he was on the 80s sitcom, Family Ties, he met his wife-to-be. She joined the show as his love interest, and Ellen Reed soon became the real deal.
When Fox met her for the first time, he said that it was ‘interesting’ but as the connection got stronger, he was ‘steered in the right direction’. They were married within a year.
Not long after they were married, Michael J Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He was only 29 at the time and he said that it was the point when things got interesting.
When he told his wife about his diagnosis, she responded “In sickness or in health.” That was really a relief to Fox.
At first, he was trying to cover the disease with alcohol and he struggled. Eventually, this tested their relationship to the limit and he remembered waking up with a hangover and waiting for his wife to get upset.
She didn’t get upset, she said: “I didn’t scream. I wasn’t angry, I was kind of feeling done.” That was a far worse reaction.
They continued to stick it out and Michael now uses humor in order to help himself and his wife deal with the situation. He also tried to maintain a positive outlook, using positivity to mask the challenges in ways that he had never done before.
He continues to use joy and comity as his go-to when he is feeling at his lowest. He also has a lot of things on the go, including the work that he does with his Michael J Fox Foundation, which has raised more than $2 billion to help with Parkinson’s research.
Unlike many people with Parkinson’s, Fox considers it to be a nonfatal disease. He has often said that you don’t die from Parkinson’s, you live with Parkinson’s.
We know that things have been difficult for the family over the years but we wish them the best moving forward. We hope that they have all the happiness they could want.
