“I Thought He Was Just Losing His Mind”: Ryan Reynolds Shares Regret and Revelation in Father’s Parkinson’s Journey

Ryan Reynolds, known for his wit and charm on-screen, has recently opened up about a deeply personal and painful chapter in his life: his father’s battle with Parkinson’s disease. But beyond the visible tremors and physical limitations often associated with the illness, Reynolds is shedding light on a lesser-known—and far more bewildering—aspect of the disease: hallucinations and delusions.

James Chester Reynolds, a former Vancouver police officer, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1988 at the age of 57. At the time, Ryan was only 22 and just beginning his career. In public, the family rarely acknowledged the diagnosis. “My dad barely mentioned it,” Ryan recalled in People Magazine. “It was like we were trying to outrun it, to pretend it wasn’t happening.”

But the disease couldn’t be ignored for long. Roughly a decade after the initial diagnosis, the Reynolds family faced a devastating shift. James began experiencing vivid hallucinations and delusional thoughts—believing people were after him or that he was being conspired against. “It was a wild departure from the man I knew,” Ryan admitted. “At the time, I thought he was losing his mind.”

That misunderstanding—born from a lack of awareness—drove a wedge between father and son. Ryan, unprepared to navigate the emotional chaos of delusional behavior, began to drift from the father he barely knew how to communicate with. “Our relationship was already complicated,” he said, “but those years of confusion and silence created a distance I’ll always regret.”

Now a father of four himself, Ryan sees things more clearly. He named his eldest daughter James in honor of the man he struggled to understand. “Becoming a parent gave me perspective,” he said. “I realized how much I missed—not just time with him, but the chance to really know him.”

James passed away in 2015, nearly 20 years after his diagnosis. Since then, Ryan has made it his mission to raise awareness about the full scope of Parkinson’s. He joined the board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2009 and recently partnered with the “More to Parkinson’s” campaign to spotlight the nonmotor symptoms—like hallucinations and delusions—that affect up to 50% of patients but remain widely misunderstood.

The campaign provides education tools, including a four-question screener to help families recognize the signs early. It’s also personal: Ryan’s mother, Tammy, carried much of the caregiving burden alone. “There were no guides back then, no resources for what we were dealing with. I want other families to have what we didn’t,” he said.

Reflecting on it all, Ryan doesn’t just advocate from a distance—he carries his father’s story in his heart, and his own in every word. “If we’d understood what was happening,” he said, “it could have changed everything—his care, our bond, the way I remember those years. I’ll live with that, but I hope by sharing it, someone else won’t have to.”