The actor married Tracy Pollan in 1988.
An unexpected insult made Michael J. Fox fall in love with Tracy Pollan. In Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, the actor's Apple TV+ documentary, Fox recalls how he first met his now-wife of three decades and when he knew she was the one for him.
Their first meeting came at the height of Fox's career, when Back to the Future was a hit and Family Ties was still going strong. Pollan was cast on the sitcom to play Fox's character's love interest.
"One day, we broke for lunch. After lunch, we picked up where we left off. The moment she said her first line, I detected a hint of garlic and sensed an opportunity to have a little fun at her expense. 'Whoa, a little scampi for lunch, babe?'" Fox recalls. "At first she said nothing. Her expression didn't even change. But looking me dead in the eyes she said slowly, 'That was mean, and rude, and you're a complete and total f**king a**hole.'"
"Nobody talked to me that way. This woman was completely unintimidated by whoever I thought I was. A pig is a pig no matter how many hit movies he's just had," he continues, before admitting that he "was a bit of a d**k" at the time.
"She was joking, but I didn't get it because no one would ever joke with me like that," Fox says. "I was not the butt of any jokes. She just poked through that, like, you're a scared little kid and I'll just call you out. In that moment I fell in love with her."
Fox notes of Pollan, "Who she is is so locked in because it's so honest. I could be the king of England and she would be her. I could be Elvis and she would be her."
Shortly thereafter, the pair jetted off to New York for a movie and continued to fall more and more in love. "Once we got together, I was the most in love person," Fox says. "I still am."
They tied the knot in 1988 and Pollan was pregnant with their first child, a son named Sam, who's now 33. Per Fox, his wife essentially became "a single mother" as his career continued to skyrocket.
Then came Fox's Parkinson's diagnosis. After learning the news, Pollan told her husband simply, "In sickness and in health." A difficult time followed for Fox, who began drinking to "disassociate, to escape my situation."
"I was definitely an alcoholic," Fox admits, before remembering Pollan's response after one late-night binge.
"I found no expression of rage. She was meeting my sorry state with indifference," Fox recalls. "'Is this what you want?' she asked. 'This is what you want to be?' I've never been so frightened in my life."
Fox got sober, but "as low alcohol had brought me, abstinence would bring me lower" because he "could no longer escape myself." As Fox began to hide behind his work, Pollan was "getting to the end of her rope," especially after the arrival of their twins, Aquinnah and Schuyler, who are now 28.
Fox got on a good path when Spin City premiered, but hiding his symptoms while filming the show exacerbated the tremors. Eventually, he revealed his diagnosis to the world. While he feared what doing so would mean, Fox found that he "didn't have to do anything other than be myself."
Fox and Pollan welcomed their fourth child, Esmé, who's now 21, in 2001. In the end, it's his family that's gotten him through.
"When I'm with my family there's no... 'Oh baby. I feel your pain. I feel so bad for you. You're a saint among men,'" Fox says. "That would be the worst thing they could do to me."
Instead, Pollan has "learned to deal with a lot of stuff," something Fox is immensely grateful for.
"How frustrating it must be to bear a burden that isn't her burden. It's my burden, but she shares it with me. She not only shares it with me, she takes it on more than I take it on," he says. "Anything I go through, she's gone through and then has to figure out how to make it work. I just have to feel it and live it."
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is now streaming on Apple TV+.
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