It took three years before Sandra Bullock could find the right words to express her grief over the loss of her partner. In August 2023, 57-year-old photographer Bryan Randall passed away from complications related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The Oscar winner broke her silence about the loss in an interview on the SmartLess podcast, which is hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes. (The episode, which is available via SiriusXM for early access subscribers, will be on all podcast platforms as of August 24.) She appeared on the show to promote Practical Magic 2, which will be released in theaters on September 10.
As fans of the original film know, grief is an important theme in the Practical Magic universe—and also in Bullock’s life. “I started grieving Bryan four years before he passed,” she said of her late companion, who she met in 2015. But she had to bear that burden in secret, as Randall “asked me not to share” his diagnosis, she said. “I wasn’t allowed to speak about it. That was the request and I tried—I honored it,” she added.
The global pandemic, which began in 2020, further “isolated me in the process,” she said. That, plus raising her two young children (Louis, now 16, and Laila, now 12) and caring for Randall as his condition worsened, was “a trifecta that was pretty dark.”
“My person left a lot earlier than the body left,” Sandra Bullock said of Randall’s experience with the degenerative disease. “I don’t think I ever dealt with that until after he passed, because you’re just on this treadmill, you know?”