Michael J Fox “broke his face” due to Parkinson’s.
The ‘Back to the Future’ actor, 61, has battled the disease for more than 30 years and has detailed the litany of injuries and broken bones he’s sustained while enduring the degenerative disease.
He said in a cover interview for next week’s issue of Variety magazine, out Wednesday, 17 May: “I broke this shoulder — had it replaced. I broke this elbow. I broke this hand.
“I had an infection that almost cost me this finger. I broke my face.
“I broke this humerus. And that sucked.”
Fox, who has four children with his wife, Tracy Pollan, 62, and retired from acting in 2020, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991, a year after ‘Back to the Future Part III’ was released.
He also told Variety about the recent challenges he’s faced that remind him of when he first got the news he had Parkinson’s: “I have aides around me quite a bit of the time in case I fall, and that lack of privacy is hard to deal with.
“I lost family members. I lost my dog. I lost freedom. I lost health. I hesitate to use the term ‘depression’ because I’m not qualified to diagnose myself, but all the signs were there.”
He also spoke about struggling with his speech due to his illness: “I sometimes have a fleeting moment of disappointment when a really great joke comes out and lands flat because people can’t understand what I’m saying.
“It’s not like you can just repeat it. It’s dead on arrival. But you find ways to navigate it.”
Fox founded the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in 2000, which has raised more than $1.75-billion for research funding.
He has told ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ the organisation’s recently published study, which says researchers have discovered a biomarker for Parkinson’s, “changes everything” for sufferers.
Fox added: “I know where we are right now. In five years, they will be able to tell if you have it, they will be able to tell if you’re ever going to get it, and we’ll know how to treat it.”
Read the latest issue of IOL Health digital magazine here.
