Sandra Bullock opens up about loss of partner Bryan Randall and his private ALS battle | CNN

Sandra Bullock has opened up about the loss of her partner Bryan Randall and his private battle with neurodegenerative disease ALS. “I wasn’t allowed to speak about it,” Bullock said, referencing Randall’s diagnosis. “That was the request and I tried — I honored it,” she told the “SmartLess” podcast, hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, in an early access episode released this week. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that make the muscles of both the upper and lower body work. People with the condition lose control of muscle movement, eventually losing their ability to eat, speak, walk and, ultimately, breathe. What is ALS, the condition Stephen Hawking lived with for over 5 decades? “I know why he asked me not (to),” she said of Randall’s request to keep his illness quiet, sharing that especially during the global Covid-19 pandemic, bearing the weight of the diagnosis “isolated me in the process.” The Oscar-winner revealed that her sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, was the only person who knew about Randall’s diagnosis “for a while,” but the actres