Michael J Fox and Tracy Pollan’s secert to a successful marriage

It was 1985 when Michael J. Fox met his soulmate and now-wife, Tracy Pollan. But initially, their connection was purely platonic. 

They were working on the beloved sitcom, Family Ties – they even played love interests! Tracey, however, was in a long-term relationship with Kevin Bacon, while Michael was dating Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey.

Many years later, they reunited (and single) on Bright Lights, Big City in 1987, and fell in love. 

“It sounds really horrible, but it was one of those things,” Michael told People in 1989. “Someone goes, ‘Did you hear that so-and-so aren’t together anymore?’ And you go, ‘Hmm, that’s too bad. Where’s the phone?'”

Just three months after the movie premiered in April 1988, Michael and Tracy tied the knot in Vermont. The couple, who were both in their late 20s at the time, dreamed of a private ceremony with their loved ones. Unfortunately, the paparazzi hunted them down. 

“I got married last summer and the reviews were terrible,” Michael wrote in an essay for Esquire. “Now, bad reviews I can normally handle — you put your work out there and anybody can take their shot. But Tracy and I had never conceived of our wedding as part of our oeuvre.”

“I paid for our privacy in the coin of bad press. The tabloids projected the embarrassment of their failure on Tracy and me.” 

Yet inside the venue, they continued to dance the night away with Michael describing it as a “house party” to People. 

On May 30, 1989, Michael and Tracy welcomed their first baby, a son named Sam Michael. “Tracy had a really good pregnancy, and it was a good delivery. Thank God, she was healthy and Sam was healthy,” he told People.

All seemed to be going well for the family. Michael’s career was booming with Back to the Future Part II, The Secret of My Success, Doc Hollywood and more. But in 1991, at just 29 years old, Michael received the diagnosis that flipped his world upside down: Parkinson’s disease. 

The public didn’t discover his Parkinson’s diagnosis until 1998. During which he welcomed twin girls, Aquinnah Kathleen and Schuyler Frances in February 1995. Sadly, Michael only shared his truth because it was bullied out of him. 

“The paparazzi and stuff, they would stand outside my apartment and heckle at me, like, ‘What’s the matter with you?’ I said, ‘I can’t be making my neighbors deal with this,’ so I came out, and it was great. It was a great thing,” he said in 2021. 

In 2000, Michael stepped away from acting to focus on his family and his Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. As of September 2026, Michael has raised more than $3 billion in research. 

Rounding out the family in 2001 was another daughter, Esme Annabelle. 

In July 2026, they celebrated 38 years of marriage. What they experienced in almost four decades together couldn’t exactly be described as wedded bliss; Michael overcame alcoholism, and had to learn how to walk again after spinal surgery to remove a noncancerous tumour. But he had Tracy through thick and thin. 

“It was us against the world. That’s exactly what we’ve created,” Tracy previously told People. “We assume the best… my first assumption is not that he’s not being unkind to me. It’s that something else was going on.”

Taking it day by day, the lovebirds are stronger than ever. Their most recent public outing, which stole everyone’s attention, was the 2026 Emmy Awards where Michael was presented with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.