When Sandra Bullock‘s longtime partner, Bryan Randall, passed away at age 57 in 2023, the news came as a shock to friends, colleagues and Bullock’s fans as the photographer never disclosed a diagnosis or revealed that he was battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS.
At the time of his passing, Randall’s “loving family” released a statement and said that he “chose early to keep his journey with ALS private and those who cared for him did our best to honor his request.” Three years later, Bullock is opening up for the first time about the challenges she faced in keeping the battle private in the face of what she called “a traumatic diagnosis.”
“I wasn’t allowed to speak about it. That was the request,” Bullock shared during a new episode of SiriusXM’s SmartLess podcast (available early to subscribers), hosted by her good friend Jason Bateman and co-hosts Will Arnett and Sean Hayes. (Bullock’s inner circle includes Bateman, his wife Amanda Anka and Jennifer Aniston.) “He asked me not to share. I know why he asked me not to.”
Bullock added that she wasn’t “allowed to tell anybody” including Bateman’s wife Anka. “My sister was the only one who knew for a while,” she added of close sibling Gesine Bullock-Prado. “At first I go, ‘Oh, I can handle that. I can be quiet.'”
