The long-term partner of actress Sandra Bullock died last year at the age of 57, following a private battle with ALS, the most common form of motor neurone disease.
The death of Bryan Randall, who met Sandra back in 2015, was announced on August 7 2023 and tragically brought to a close their eight-year romance.
While Sandra didn’t share a statement at the time, his family did, thanking doctors and explaining that Bryan had decided to keep his diagnosis a secret.
Sandra Bullock loses partner Bryan Randall to ALS
A statement from Bryan’s family read: “It is with great sadness that we share that on Aug 5, Bryan Randall passed away peacefully after a three-year battle with ALS. Bryan chose early to keep his journey with ALS private and those of us who cared for him did our best to honor his request.”
It then continued: “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.”
The family then issued a plea for “privacy to grieve”. They said: “At this time we ask for privacy to grieve and to come to terms with the impossibility of saying goodbye to Bryan.”
Meeting… and going red carpet official
Sandra and photographer Bryan first met in 2015 when he photographed her son Louis’ birthday. They officially started dating a few months later and are said to have attended the wedding of Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux together.
Months after their relationship began, the couple appeared on the red carpet together for the first time. They held hands as they attended the Our Brand Is Crisis premiere in Los Angeles.
Parenting with a ‘very patient’ Bryan
The actress has two adopted children – son Louis, now 13, and daughter Laila, 10. Bryan also had a daughter from a previous relationship.
At the time of meeting, Laila’s adoption was already underway: “I had Louis first. Then when I met him, we hadn’t been together that long and I said: ‘Remember that NDA you signed when you photographed my son? You know that still holds … because I’m bringing home a child when I come back from Toronto,'” she shared.
She recalled that Bryan – who had a daughter from a previous relationship – was both “happy” and “scared” after she told him that she was adopting a second child. The actress called him “very patient” and “a saint”. She added: “He has evolved on a level that is not human.”
Marriage off the cards
Rumours flew that Bryan had proposed to Sandra a year into their relationship. However, they were quickly rubbished by her reps. “Sandra Bullock is not engaged and there is no wedding,” her rep said. “There’s no truth at all in those rumours.”
Indeed, the woman herself revealed that she wasn’t worried about getting married: “I am someone who went through the divorce process. I found the love of my life. We share two beautiful children – three children, [Bryan’s] older daughter. It’s the best thing ever.
“I don’t want say do it like I do it, but I don’t need a paper to be a devoted partner and devoted mother.”
Sandra has also spoken about the kind of father Bryan was in the past. She said: “He’s the example that I would want my children to have. I have a partner who’s very Christian and there are two different ways of looking at things. I don’t always agree with him, and he doesn’t always agree with me. But he is an example even when I don’t agree with him.”
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Stepping back from work
March 2022 saw the actress take a step out of the limelight. Announcing the news, she said: “Right now, and I don’t know how long that will be, I need to be in the place that makes me happiest.
“I take my job very seriously when I’m at work. It’s 24/7 and I just want to be 24/7 with my babies and my family.”
Bryan’s death was announced the following year.
On what would have been his 58th birthday, Bullock released her late partner’s ashes on Snake River in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
“Happy birthday, Bry. Sandy brought you to the river, just as she promised,” her sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, wrote on Instagram alongside a serene video of Randall’s final resting place.
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Catch Sandra in Miss Congeniality on Channel 5, Saturday (March 16) at 2.55pm.
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