Sandra Bullock called her longtime partner Bryan Randall the “love of my life” in 2021 as he privately dealt with an ALS diagnosis.
When the Oscar winner, 59, appeared on a Red Table Talk episode in December 2021, she spoke about not needing marriage to legitimize her relationship with Randall.
“I found the love of my life,” she said of the photographer, who died on Saturday at age 57. “We share two beautiful children— three children, his older daughter. It’s the best thing ever.”
“I don’t wanna say do it like I do it, but I don’t need a paper to be a devoted partner and devoted mother. I don’t need to be told to be ever present in the hardest of times. I don’t need to be told to weather a storm with a good man.”
Sandra Bullock’s Sister Gesine Bullock-Prado Speaks Out on Bryan Randall’s Death, ALS: ‘A Cruel Disease’
On Monday, Randall’s family revealed to PEOPLE that he had been privately battling ALS for three years.
“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,” his family shared in a statement.
Bryan Randall and Sandra Bullock in June 2018.
Raymond Hall/GC Images
During the wide-ranging RTT conversation, co-host Willow Smith called Bullock a “really strong woman,” which the actress acknowledged.
“I am. And sometimes I wish it wasn’t so… sometimes I just wish I could let myself just fall apart, but it’s not my time yet. I’ll fall apart when it’s my time. I have a spirit that just says, even when things were bad, I’m like, ‘It’s gonna get better.’ I’m lucky.”
Bullock met Randall in 2015 when he photographed her son’s birthday. The actress has son Louis, 13, and daughter Laila, 11, and Randall has an older daughter from a previous relationship.
On RTT, Bullock also opened up about adoption and how Randall was the “right human being” to support her while expanding her family.
Bryan Randall; Sandra Bullock.
Getty Images
“He’s the example that I would want my children to have,” she said. “I have a partner who’s very Christian and there’s two very 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, that I go, if they can take away from that and if that is where they feel drawn to then he is the exact right parent to be in this position.”
Bullock admitted, “I’m stubborn, but sometimes I need to sit back and listen and go: ‘You’re saying it differently but we mean exactly the same thing.’ It’s hard to co-parent because I just want to do it myself.”
Sandra Bullock in March 2022.
Gareth Cattermole/Getty
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In March 2022, as she promoted her film The Lost City, Bullock told Entertainment Tonight that she was taking time off from Hollywood to be with her family.
“Right now, and I don’t know how long that will be, I need to be in the place that makes me happiest,” she said at the time. “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.”
“We don’t know how long or how short, but that’s where I’m gonna be for a while,” she added.
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Source: HIS Education