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Michael J. Foxis reflecting on the pressure he felt to reveal his health condition to the world and how it surprisingly became a “great opportunity.”
The 60-year-old Emmy-winning actor recently spoke withEntertainment Tonightand discussed how his treatment from the paparazzi played a role in his decision to share publicly — several years after his diagnosis — that he was living withParkinson’s disease.
“It was seven or eight years after I had been diagnosed … [and] the paparazzi and stuff, they would stand outside my apartment and heckle at me, like, ‘What’s the matter with you?’ " Fox recalled. “I said, ‘I can’t be making my neighbors deal with this,’ so I came out, and it was great. It was a great thing.”
“It was a great surprise to me that people responded the way they responded,” Fox continued. “They responded with interest, in the desire to find an answer to the disease, and then I saw that as a great opportunity. I didn’t get put in this position to squander it.”
Michael J. Fox.Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
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With the Foundation, which has raised over $1 billion to date for Parkinson’s research, “we are loading up all the cannons we can and pointing them at the target,” Foxtold PEOPLEearlier this week. “One of them will fire and it will happen. The disease is a problem that will be there until you solve it. But we’re hopeful.”
Physically these days, “I’m in a really good groove,” said Fox. “Every day is different. The circle [of what I can do] gets smaller. But I’m happy I’ve found things in the middle of the circle that can’t be touched, like my family and the time I have with them.”
The actor and his wifeTracy Pollan, who tied the knot in 1988, share four children — Esmé, 19, Aquinnah and Schuyler, 26, and Sam, 32. He said that despite his kids being grown up, their family remains closer than ever.
“I have a great family,” Fox shared. “My kids are spectacular and they apply their energy to change and making things better. You should see our family text chain. It goes on forever!”
source: people.com
