The 64-year-old revealed the news live on CNN\u2019s The Story Is with Elex Michaelson Saturday alongside his fianc\u00e9e, Justified actor Erica Tazel.<\/p>\n
ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig\u2019s Disease) is the most common type of Motor Neurone Disease<\/a>. It is a rare, degenerative disease that affects motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord, impacting movement, speech, and independence. <\/p>\n The condition has been in the spotlight recently after another Grey\u2019s Anatomy star, Eric Dane, announced his diagnosis<\/a> in April 2025 and died in February this year.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI was diagnosed in the late fall of last year,\u201d Andrews told Michaelson in the interview. \u201cAnd it\u2019s been humbling, but there\u2019s\u2026 Elex, there\u2019s also something in the fact that I walked into a family of very caring people I did not know a year ago \u2014 the clich\u00e9 family, but they have not let us miss a step in terms of care, the attention, the awareness and the ability to get me here today.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrews said he initially feared he\u2019d suffered a stroke during the Covid pandemic, before later recognising what may have been early signs of ALS.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a stressful time. We didn’t work for three years, about, and then we had the back-to-back strikes and so a lot was going on,\u201d he said, referring to the 2023 actors\u2019 strikes and writers\u2019 strikes in Hollywood.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were twitches… I thought I was having pinched nerves in my neck and they were quite frequent,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n \u201cI was not able to do things that I normally do. I was dropping cups and glasses at night. It felt like things were running up and down my arm at different times and it was the nerves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt took him longer to clean the pool,\u201d Tazel said of the early signs of ALS in her fianc\u00e9. \u201cThe way he walked, there was just the subtle little things like that and I had questions. I was like, \u2018Something is definitely wrong.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Recalling the moment they received Andrews\u2019s diagnosis, Tazel told Michaelson: \u201cI was uncharacteristically calm and in a way, it was an answer to a lot of questions that we had.<\/p>\n \u201c[There] was not a sigh of relief, but some understanding of what was happening,\u201d she recalled. \u201cAnd I looked at him across the room and I said, \u2018At least now we know what it is, and I still want to be your wife.’ \u201d<\/p>\n Reflecting on what her fianc\u00e9\u2019s ALS journey has taught her about love, the actor said it showed her that \u201cthere are cases where it is truly unconditional.\u201d<\/p>\n Russell also announced his partnership with the ALS Network as it marks ALS Awareness Month this May.<\/p>\n \u201cReceiving this diagnosis changed my life,\u201d Andrews said via the network\u2019s website. \u201cWhat I didn\u2019t expect was the depth of connection and support that comes with it. There\u2019s a community here that shows up in ways that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrews played Detective Salerno in AMC\u2019s Breaking Bad spinoff, Better Call Saul, and a patient in Grey\u2019s Anatomy. He also played a pastor in Straight Outta Compton (2015) and held minor roles in the HBO series Insecure and CBS\u2019s NCIS: New Orleans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-652016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Russell](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Russell-Andrews-on-CNN.png\")
Russell Andrews announced his diagnosis with ALS on \u2018The Story Is with Elex Michaelson\u2019 over the weekend (CNN)![\"Erica](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Erica-Tazel-on-CNN.png\")
Erica Tazel appeared alongside her fianc\u00e9 Andrews on CNN, where she described hearing about his diagnosis for the first time (CNN)<\/p>\n