By Ted Cohen
Michael J. Fox says he’s sorry he married his wife Tracy Jo Pollan due to the pain he has caused her.
Fox says in a new interview the two were hitched “under the Vermont sun” decades ago.
Like most young couples, the early first years – forged with ‘I do’s’ said in the rugged Vermont countryside in 1988 – were blissful.
But Fox added that, given his subsequent health battles, he regrets saying “I do” and eventually putting all his troubles on his wife.
Fox, 64, who suffers from a debilitating case of Parkinson’s disease, said his health has taken an unfair, irreversible toll on his 65-year-old wife.
Pollan met Fox while working on the TV series Family Ties in 1985. Though they played a couple on the show, they did not date in real life at the time, and Pollan left the series after a year to pursue other acting opportunities.
Pollan and Fox met again during the production of Bright Lights, Big City in 1987 and after beginning a relationship, they married on July 16, 1988 at West Mountain Inn in Arlington, Vermont.
Shortly before the couple’s marriage, Fox purchased a 121-acre estate named Lottery Hill Farm in South Woodstock, Vermont.
Just three years after saying their Vermont vows, Fox was diagnosed in 1991 with Parkinson’s disease, a secret he kept from the public until 1998.
“I truly regret marrying Tracy Pollan,” Fox says in an interview that just dropped on TikTok. “I’ve ruined her life.
“Thirty-seven years ago in the Vermont sun I held her hand and said ‘I do,’ thinking I’d give her a lifetime of stability. But I never saw it coming. Parkinson’s would shred that promise.
“The day I was diagnosed she held me and cried,” he added. “After that her whole life has revolved around me.”
“She used to be the kind of girl who loved shopping and going to the movies with friends,” he says. “But later her schedule was filled with my doctor’s appointments, physical therapy and helping me organize materials for the nonprofit foundation.
“She’s the one who should be taking care of but instead she’s shielding me, keeping me safe. I regret not loving her but making her carry so much for me.
“Her life should have been brighter not dragged down by my illness.”
Despite Fox’s guilt, his devoted wife and partner said in a separate interview that if she had it to do again she would.
“I’ve never regretted marrying Michael J. Fox,” Pollan said. “When he was diagnosed I told myself I’d stand by him, and what keeps that resolve strong are three irreplaceable qualities he has:
“His devotion to family is rooted in who he is,” she added. “All these years no matter how much his body aches he’s never stepped back from being a husband or a dad.
“Second, he never lets pain hold him back from what he loves, including his acting and supporting the foundation,” she said. “Last, there’s his constant optimism and humor. My loyalty is a choice I’m happy to make.”
The enduring longtime marriage must owe a good part of its staying power to rock-ribbed Vermont.