Michael J. Fox’s wife, Tracy Pollan, finds it can be “hard” to stay optimistic as her husband continues to battle Parkinson’s disease.
Pollan told Pvnew at “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Cure Parkinson’s” annual gala on Saturday night that “sometimes” she feels optimistic and sometimes she doesn’t.
“I don’t think you need to feel the pressure be optimistic all the time,” the actress, 63, continued, “because it’s hard. Life is hard.”
Pollan said that, for her, the key is to “just put one foot in front of the other and lean on family and friends for support.”
Pollan and Fox — who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease over 30 years ago — tied the knot in 1988 and share four children: son Sam, and daughters, Aquinnah, Schuyler and Esmé.
In a recent interview, the “Back to the Future” actor, revealed that he’s not afraid of death.
“One day I’ll run out of gas,” the actor told Town & Country. “One day I’ll just say, ‘It’s not going to happen. I’m not going out today.’ If that comes, I’ll allow myself that.”
Fox noted that he is 62 years old, so if he “were to pass away tomorrow, it would be premature.”
“But it wouldn’t be unheard of,” he continued. “And so, no, I don’t fear that.”
In his book “Lucky Man,” he recalled the diagnosis feeling like “the bill being brought to a sloppy table after an ill-deserved and under-appreciated banquet.”
Earlier this year, Fox confessed that life with Parkinson’s, which is a degenerative brain disorder that affects the nervous system, was getting noticeably more difficult with age.
“I’m not gonna lie. It’s gettin’ hard, it’s gettin’ harder,” he said on “CBS Sunday Morning,” adding, “It’s gettin’ tougher. Every day it’s tougher.”
He was diagnosed with the neurological disorder in 1991, but didn’t publicly announce it until 1998.
Since then, his foundation — which was created in 2000 — has funded nearly $2 billion in research.
The gala on Saturday night raised another $4 million.
Celeb guests included Julianne Moore, Justin Long and Kate Bosworth, Michelle Buteau, Joan Jett, Keegan-Michael Key and Fox’s “Back to the Future” co-star Christopher Lloyd.
