Bryan Randall died in August 2023.

Sandra Bullock explains how she talked to her kids about her late partner’s ALS

Bryan Randall died in August 2023.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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August 24, 2026 10:44 p.m. ET

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Bryan Randall and Sandra Bullock at the ‘Ocean’s Eight’ premiere in 2018. Credit:

Raymond Hall/GC Images

- Sandra Bullock discussed how much her kids knew ahead of her partner Bryan Randall’s death from ALS.

- Bullock is mom to Louis, 16, and Laila, 12.

- She began dating Randall in 2015, and he was diagnosed with ALS in 2020.

Sandra Bullock says it was no surprise to her kids that her partner, Bryan Randall, was going through a health crisis that eventually led to his August 2023 death from ALS.

They were “completely aware,” Bullock said Monday on the *SmartLess *podcast hosted by Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes. “Absolutely aware, because once there is a situation where you’re bedridden. We all have to go there. It was in my house, and I did my best to set up whatever I could, and I am lucky in that I had the means to pay for it.”

Bullock said she had a child therapist on hand to speak with Louis, 16, and Laila, who’s 12, following Randall’s diagnosis in 2020.

The *Practical Magic *star and Randall, a model-turned-photographer, had coupled up in 2015 after he captured Louis’ birthday party.

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Bullock said her kids were completely aware of what was going on just by living at her home.

“Well, they could see. They have eyes, and they are very, very astute kids,” Bullock said. “Very astute, because they not only see the physical change, there’s a behavior that changes in all of us. You know, I’m hyper vigilant.”

She continued, “I became manic in my vigilance, because I had to not only make sure he was okay. I had to make sure we could keep the nurses, because anyone who’s had the privilege of having in-home care knows the cycle of nurses, and I found them during a pandemic, and I found four men that were strong enough, because Brian is 6’2”, and that is an anomaly. I don’t know how I reached out to one doctor that I knew, and I begged her. I said, ‘Please do not tell anybody, but I need help in finding this. Don’t tell them I’m looking.’ It was the most covert CIA operation known to man.”

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Each of her children chose to deal with the situation in their own way.

“Louis handled it very different than Laila. About two years before Brian passed, he saw it was a dynamic that wasn’t healthy for him to be around,” Bullock said. “So, he’s very evolved. He’s like, you know what, I’m here for you.”

Still, Bullock said it had been very important to her that Louis didn’t feel the need to become the man of the family.

“He chose to just sort of be there in support and help me on the things that were easy for him,” Bullock said. “But he smartly disengaged himself and said, ‘This is a safer space for me to sit.’ And I said, ‘Absolutely, you go. I got this.’”

Her daughter’s reaction had been to stay close for a while.

Sandra Bullock with her kids when they were babies.

Sandra Bullock/Instagram

“Laila, on the other hand, was more bonded until about six months out,” Bullock noted. “And then she says, ‘Can you please say no when they call me over to go visit?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ And I said, ‘But if you do want to go visit, I will come with you, and I will be right there. And if you tap out, I am right there.’”

Bullock explained that she had Randall and his team in an area of her home that was dedicated to them.

“The way that my house is, I was able to sort of wall off a whole section and make it a different entrance, where it had an outside garden and all these kinds of things,” she said, “because I wouldn’t let anyone in and out of the house without severe COVID tests.”

Hear the full conversation above.

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