Sandra Bullock opens up about her partner Bryan Randall’s death and private MND battle

Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock has opened up about the death of her longtime partner, Bryan Randall, three years after his passing.

Randall died in August 2023 at the age of 57 following a three-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common form of motor neurone disease .

At the time, Randall chose to keep his health battle private, with Bullock now revealing she was asked to keep the diagnosis a secret for years.

ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

It eventually impacts the ability to move, speak, eat and breathe. While treatment can slow the disease’s progression, there is currently no cure.

Appearing on a new episode of the SmartLess podcast, Bullock reflected on caring for Randall and the “huge weight” of carrying his diagnosis.

“I wasn’t allowed to speak about it,” Bullock told hosts, actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes,

“That was the request and I tried, I honoured it. He asked me not to share and it isolated me in the process.”

Bullock and Randall reportedly first met in 2015 and also kept their relationship fairly private.

The Oscar-winning actress explained Randall had been unwell for half of their relationship and his ALS diagnosis came amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The couple had co-parented her son Louis and daughter Laila, as well as Randall’s daughter from a previous relationship, Skylar.

“It doesn’t scare me, not the illness itself, it doesn’t scare me. I can see and be around just about anything,” Bullock said, reflecting on that difficult time.

“But I had two young kids that were navigating it, especially a little girl who saw Randall as a father figure.”

Bullock described Randall’s diagnosis as “traumatic” and said she had started grieving him four years before his death.