Michael J. Fox insists he’s alive and ‘doing great’ after CNN blunder led to shock death rumors
“Back to the Future” star Michael J. Fox reassured fans that he was alive and well after CNN published a misleading article about his death.
“Michael is doing great,” his rep told TMZ Wednesday. “He was at PaleyFest yesterday. He was on stage and was giving interviews.”
Additionally, a CNN spokesperson apologized after a video titled “Remembering the life of actor Michael J. Fox” was published.
“The package was published in error; we have removed it from our platforms and send our apologies to Michael J. Fox and his family,” the rep told the outlet.
A rep for Fox, 64, wasn’t immediately available to Page Six for comment.
On Tuesday, the actor stopped by the PaleyFest LA hosted at the Dolby Theatre to join the Apple TV+ series “Shrinking” for their Season 3 wrap party.
The “Spin City” alum joined Jason Segel and Harrison Ford as a guest star in the forthcoming season, which was released in January and concludes on Wednesday.
In recent years, Fox has taken a step back from larger on-camera roles after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991.
At the time, he was only 29 years old, and he waited until 1998 to announce his condition.
Parkinson’s disease is defined as “a progressive movement disorder of the nervous system,” which ultimately leads “to symptoms that include problems with movement, tremor, stiffness, and impaired balance,” according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Over the years, Fox has opened up about battling the disease and revealed how he initially ran away from it when he was first diagnosed.
“Honestly, my first reaction was, ‘You’ve made a mistake — you’re not aware of who I am,’” he told Closer Weekly in 2018.
“I responded by drinking too much,” he said. “I drank to obliterate it, to make it go away. [But the abuse] caused tension in my marriage, which had always been good and has been amazing since.”
Fox is married to Tracy Pollan, whom he wed in 1988, and the couple shares a son, Michael, 36, twin daughters Aquinnah Kathleen and Schuyler Frances Fox, both 31, and a 24-year-old daughter, Esmé Annabelle.
Additionally, Fox vulnerably shared he had accepted he would likely not make it to 80 years old, saying in a 2023 “CBS Sunday Morning” interview that his disease will “make the call” when it’s his time to die.
At the time, the “Family Ties” alum admitted that it was “gettin’ tougher” every day.
