Michael J. Fox thanked his wife, Tracy Pollan, for her "sacrifices," her "patience" and her "love" as he accepted the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at Monday night's Primetime Emmy Awards, capping a marriage that has carried the couple through four decades of his Parkinson's disease.
"Now's the part where I thank Tracy and our kids for their sacrifices, for their patience, and for their love. You have no idea," Fox said in his acceptance speech, after being brought onstage in a wheelchair to a standing ovation.
How Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan Met
Fox and Pollan met in 1985 on the set of the NBC sitcom Family Ties, when Pollan was cast as his love interest. It was far from love at first sight. Fox joked to her after a lunch break, "Whoa, a little scampi for lunch, babe?" mocking the smell of garlic on her breath.
Speaking in his Apple TV+ documentary, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, Fox recalled that Pollan looked him "dead in the eyes" and told him slowly, "That was mean and rude, and you're a complete and total f***ing a**hole." He said no one had ever spoken to him that way before. "In that moment, I fell in love with her," he said.
From Bright Lights, Big City to Marriage
Both were in other relationships when they first met, and it wasn't until they reunited two years later in New York City to film Bright Lights, Big City that they became a couple. "We'd hang out on the set together," Fox said in his documentary. "She had a front-row seat to view the whirlwind that my life had become. Once we got together, I just was the most in love person. I still am."
They got engaged seven months later and married in a small ceremony with just 50 guests at the West Mountain Inn in Arlington, Vermont, keeping the wedding private despite public interest. Their first child, son Sam, arrived the following year, followed by twin daughters Aquinnah Kathleen and Schuyler Frances, and a fourth child, Esmé Annabelle.
Parkinson's Diagnosis at 29
Three years into the marriage, at just 29 and at the height of his acting career, Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a progressive neurological condition affecting movement and balance. He chose to keep the diagnosis secret, and Pollan, then 30, quickly became his carer and confidant.
"We didn't know what to expect," Fox has said of learning the diagnosis. "One of the things I'll always love Tracy for is that at that moment, she didn't blink." Speaking on CBS, he added: "For better or worse, in sickness, she was going to stick with me, and she has. At any time she would have been forgiven to say, 'I'm just gonna step out.' But she didn't do that."
Fox said he had come to see his wife as separate from his illness and his fame. "I realise she has a life separate from me having Parkinson's, from me being Alex Keaton or Marty McFly, she's a person. I think that's why it's gone okay," he said, adding that "we knew the bus was coming and we knew it was going to hit, but we didn't know how far away it was or how fast it was going." He has also credited her directly, saying, "Tracy gives our family everything that we need. Any good in our family, anything good that we do, comes from her."
Pollan, for her part, told PEOPLE the secret to the marriage was communication. "I think we really listen to each other, we are there for each other when we need each other. And then we also give each other space when that's needed. Just feeling off of what's needed at the moment and trying to be there."
Bob Hope Humanitarian Award
The Bob Hope Humanitarian Award was established in 2002 to honour a member of the television industry whose philanthropy reflects the entertainer's own decades of charitable work. Fox received the honour for his contributions to Parkinson's disease research and advocacy through the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
In his speech, Fox said his parents, born during the Great Depression, viewed Bob Hope as "more than an entertainer" for showing up for troops in Berlin and Saigon with "a Turkey leg and a golf club." He said those lessons prepared him, without his knowing it, for the diagnosis that arrived in his late 20s, calling it "a role I wasn't looking for."
He admitted he initially hid the diagnosis because he worried it would affect his work and his relationship with audiences, questioning "whether fans would laugh if they knew I was sick." Instead, he said, fan support kept him going. "I understood that accepting Parkinson's didn't mean I had to surrender to it," he said, adding that he had vowed to fund "the best science in the world" and thanked the foundation's staff, donors, researchers and the patient community.
After three decades together, Fox and Pollan appeared on the red carpet ahead of the ceremony, joined by their children: Sam, 37; twins Aquinnah and Schuyler, 31; and Esme, 24.
Emmy Nomination for Shrinking
Fox also received his 19th Emmy nomination this year, for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Apple TV+'s Shrinking, marking his return to acting after retiring in 2020. In the series he plays Gerry, who befriends Harrison Ford's character, Dr. Paul Rhoades, a man also navigating a Parkinson's diagnosis. Fox lost the award to Rob Reiner, who was honoured posthumously for his role in The Bear.
Other Winners at the Ceremony
Elsewhere at the Emmys, The Pitt, led by Noah Wyle, won Outstanding Drama Series, and Widow's Bay won Outstanding Comedy Series. Katie Dippold's script for the Widow's Bay premiere, "Welcome to Widow's Bay," won Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.
Hiro Murai won Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for the same episode.
