Michael J. Fox says living with Parkinson’s is becoming “harder”

Michael J. Fox has opened up about living with Parkinson’s disease, saying in a new interview that it’s becoming “harder” to live with the condition.

Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 when he was 29 years old. He went on to found the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2000 to help fund research into finding a cure and continued to act until 2021 when he retired due to his declining health.

In a new interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Fox told anchor Jane Pauley that Parkinson’s was “banging on the door”.

“I’m not gonna lie. It’s getting harder. Every day, it’s tougher but that’s the way it is,” he said.

“I’ve had spinal surgery. I’ve had a tumour on my spine, it was benign, but it messed up my walking and then I started to break stuff. I broke this arm, and I broke this arm. I broke this elbow. I broke my face. I broke my hand.”

“Falling is a big killer with Parkinson’s, [so is] aspirating food and getting pneumonia,” he continued before saying it was “all these subtle ways it gets you”.

“You don’t die from Parkinson’s. You die with Parkinson’s,” said the 61-year-old. “I’ve been thinking about the mortality of it. I’m not gonna be 80.”

The full CBS interview with Michael J. Fox is set to be broadcast tomorrow morning (April 30).

A documentary about Fox’s life is set for release next month. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie premieres May 12 on Apple TV+ and is directed by An Inconvenient Truth filmmaker Davis Guggenheim.

The film explores Fox’s career including his breakthrough role in Back To The Future, and includes rare interviews and clips looking back at his huge rise to fame in the 1980s. The film also covers his Parkinson’s diagnosis and how he persevered and went on to raise over $2billion (£1.7billion) towards research for the condition.

A screening of the film earlier this year, Fox said it “pisses him “off” that there still isn’t a cure for Parkinson’s disease but there is hope for the future.

“People say, ‘But that will be after your time, are you OK with that?’” Fox asked, before answering his own question. “Yeah. That would be great. Just get it done. I don’t care if I’m on the bus.”