In 1991, at just 29 years old and at the height of his Hollywood career, Michael J. Fox received a diagnosis that would change everything. Doctors told him he had Parkinson’s disease — and they delivered another blow that felt almost as devastating.
“I was told I only had 10 years left to work,” Fox revealed years later while accepting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Governors Awards in November 2022.
That was more than three decades ago. Since then, Fox has won five Emmys, founded one of the world’s largest nonprofit funders of Parkinson’s research, and just received another Emmy nomination — his 19th — for his return to acting in Apple TV+’s Shrinking. And on September 14, 2026, he was honored with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 78th Emmy Awards for his contributions to Parkinson’s research and advocacy.
“The Certainty of the Diagnosis and the Uncertainty of the Situation”
Fox has spoken candidly about the emotional toll of his diagnosis. “The hardest part of my diagnosis was grappling with the certainty of the diagnosis and the uncertainty of the situation,” he said.
The diagnosis itself was definite. But how quickly the disease would progress remained impossible to predict. He spent years struggling to accept what was happening before publicly revealing his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 1998 — seven years after he was first told.
The Person Who Stayed
Through those difficult years, one person remained by his side: his wife, Tracy Pollan. The couple met on the set of Family Ties in 1985 and married in 1988 — just three years before Fox’s diagnosis. On July 16, 2026, they celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary.
Fox has never treated Pollan’s loyalty as something he was automatically entitled to. Speaking about their marriage in a 2023 interview, he acknowledged just how much Parkinson’s had required from both of them.
“She’s an amazing person and has gone through a lot. It’s no small thing,” he said.
Then he made a particularly emotional admission: “At any time, she would have been forgiven to say, ‘I’m just gonna step out.’ But she didn’t do that.”
Instead, Pollan remained beside him as Parkinson’s increasingly affected his movement, balance, and ability to work. The couple raised four children together — Sam, twins Aquinnah and Schuyler, and Esmé — and Fox repeatedly credits Pollan with holding their family together.
“Any good in our family, anything good that we do, comes from her,” he told People.
Pollan has said their lasting relationship isn’t based on some complicated secret. Listening to one another, being there when needed, and knowing when to give each other space have all played a role.
A Return to Acting He Never Expected
Fox stepped back from acting in 2020 after Parkinson’s made it increasingly difficult for him to speak and memorize lines. But in 2025, he ended his retirement to play Gerry, a fellow Parkinson’s patient, opposite Harrison Ford in Shrinking. The role was written specifically for him — and it allowed him to show up and simply be himself on set.
“It’s really prolonged my life and made my life better,” Fox told The Hollywood Reporter about acting. “I’m not retired from acting, but if I didn’t act again…”
He landed an Emmy nomination for the role — his first in a decade — and has said he’d return for season four “in a heartbeat.”
The Fight He Never Gave Up
Beyond his acting career, Fox has dedicated himself to finding a cure. The Michael J. Fox Foundation, which he founded in 2000, has grown into the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research, having funded more than $3 billion globally to date. In 2026 alone, the foundation plans to allocate nearly $700 million to Parkinson’s research, and it recently launched a $2.5 billion “All Grit. No Quit.” campaign to accelerate breakthroughs.
In September 2026, Fox received the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award for his transformative leadership in Parkinson’s research.
“Of course, things have gotten harder over the years,” Fox admitted to People. But he remains hopeful — and he has promised to find a cure.
“Who Remains Beside You”
More than three decades after his diagnosis, Michael J. Fox continues his Parkinson’s advocacy while Tracy Pollan remains alongside him. Their story has never been about pretending those years were easy. It is about what happened when life became harder than either of them could have imagined.
Fox has openly acknowledged that Pollan could have chosen another path. She stayed. And their love story is a reminder that sometimes the most powerful bonds aren’t defined by perfect moments — they are defined by who remains beside you when life stops being perfect. ❤️
