Sandra Bullock breaks silence on partner Bryan Randall’s death three years later

Sandra Bullock, 62, has spoken out for the first time about the death of her long-term partner Bryan Randall, who died in 2023 from motor neuron disease (MND), also known as ALS in the US.

Bullock explained that she never spoke about her partner’s “traumatic diagnosis” because he asked her to keep it private.

“He asked me not to share. I know why he asked me not to. My sister was the only one who knew for a while,” she told the SmartLess Podcast, hosted by Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes.

“At first I go, ‘Oh, I can handle that. I can be quiet. I don’t wanna harm others because of what I do’. So I think not talking for a while was good.”

Randall battled with motor neuron disease for three years before he died on August 5, 2023 aged 57. Bullock and Randall were together for eight years, and they also adopted two children together.

MND is an incurable, degenerative and fatal condition that affects nerve cells called motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord.

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The disease causes full-body paralysis over time and can progress at different speeds from person to person, according to MND Australia.

While Bullock wanted to respect her partner’s wishes, she confessed that keeping his diagnosis a secret “isolated her in the process.”

She added that she went through “a trifecta that was pretty dark” while managing his care and trying to raise their children through the COVID-19 Pandemic.

“The entire world was locked in with a pandemic. It was literally like the final diagnosis, even though, he was ill for half of our relationship,” she said.

“The diagnosis came almost at the same time as the cloak of the pandemic. So as the pandemic came down, and I have a child with severe asthma, I was panicking.”

“I had two young kids, that were navigating it, especially a little girl who saw him as a father figure... I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody. My sister was the only one who knew for, for a while. It’s a huge weight.”

The Practical Magic actress eventually confided in her close friend and fellow actress Jennifer Aniston, as well as Bateman’s wife Amanda Anka.

Randall’s condition progressed quickly, leaving Bullock “grieving for years before he passed.”

“There was something that had shifted.”

She went on to explain that Randall had been sober for 14 years prior to his diagnosis; however he told doctors to give him “what he needs” to get through the suffering.

“My person left a lot earlier than the body left. I don’t think I ever dealt with that until after he passed, because you’re just on this treadmill,” she confessed.

“I had to release a film at the same time and talk about gray. I saw myself on the red carpet and I was like, you just look at my face. And I am, I’m a woodblock.”

A statement announcing his death in 2023 read: “Bryan chose early to keep his journey with ALS private, and those of us who cared for him did our best to honour his request.”

“We are immensely grateful to the tireless doctors who navigated the landscape of this illness with us and to the astounding nurses who became our roommates, often sacrificing their own families to be with ours.”

“’At this time we ask for privacy to grieve and to come to terms with the impossibility of saying goodbye to Bryan.”

Motor neuron disease, or ALS, was the same illness that took the life of Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane in February 2026.