Topics: Health, Celebrity, Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds has opened up about how it felt to have a father with Parkinson's as well as some of the lesser-known symptoms associated with the disease.
The Deadpool & Wolverine star, 47, has revealed that his dad, James Chester Reynolds, was diagnosed with Parkinson's when Ryan was 22 years old.
In an interview with People, Ryan has shared the way in which it changed the lives of his family.
He said: "He said the word ‘Parkinson’s’ maybe three times as far as I knew - and one of them wasn’t to me. There was a ton of denial, a ton of hiding."
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James passed away in 2015, aged 74. He had lived with Parkinson's for nearly 20 years.
Following the loss, Ryan has partnered with More to Parkinson’s, an educational campaign which provides patients and caregivers with crucial resources.
He has shared two lesser-known symptoms that deeply affected his relationship with his father, and began around 10 years after his diagnosis - hallucinations and delusions.
Ryan says: "It really destabilised my relationship with him because I didn’t really know what was happening."
He went on to add: "At the time I just thought, 'My dad’s losing his mind.' My father was really slipping down a rabbit hole where he was struggling to differentiate between reality and fiction.
"Subsequently everyone else in his life was losing the bedrock faith and trust that they had on his point of view.
"There would be conspiratorial webs that he would spin about 'this is happening' and that 'these people might be after me' or 'this person is out to get me', and just stuff that was such a wild departure from the man that I grew up with and knew."
He also took the chance to reflect on the regret he feels for not forging a stronger relationship.
Ryan added: "It was very easy for me to dine off the idea that my father and I do not see eye to eye on anything and that an actual relationship with him is impossible.
"As I’m older now, I look back at it, and I think of it more as that was my unwillingness at the time to meet him where he was.
"I could have maybe been there with him toward the end, and I wasn’t. He and I just drifted apart, and that’s something I’ll live with forever."
The actor also shared a fond memory of something kind he did for his dad before he passed away, in the form of an appreciative letter.
"I sent my dad a letter about five months before he died, which I’m very grateful I did. The letter was basically a list of every amazing thing he ever did - every time he showed up or every time he had a catch with me outside after baseball practice. Every time he just was there," Ryan said.
He concluded: "I’m super grateful that I sent that letter. I know for a fact it meant the world to him. So I did get that closure."
