- Russell Andrews first believed he may have suffered a stroke because he started feeling unusual nerve problems and muscle twitches.
- Simple daily tasks became difficult as he was dropping cups and struggling with movements that once felt normal.
- During the difficult time, Andrews’ fiancee, actress Erica Tazel, made it clear she still wanted to marry him despite the life changing conditio
Better Call Saul actor Russell Andrews has revealed that he has been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a serious disease that affects the brain, nerves and spinal cord. Andrews explained that the first signs appeared during the COVID 19 pandemic, but he did not understand what was happening to his body.
He said he first believed he may have suffered a stroke because he started feeling unusual nerve problems and muscle twitches. Over time, simple daily tasks became difficult as he was dropping cups and struggling with movements that once felt normal.
During the difficult time, Andrews' fiancee, actress Erica Tazel, stood by his side after learning the diagnosis and made it clear she still wanted to marry him despite the life changing condition.
While appearing on CNN Interview, Russell Andrews explained, “I am a person living with ALS. I was diagnosed in the late fall of last year. It's been humbling. There's also something in the fact that I walked into a family of very caring people.”
Revealing the initial symptoms he faced, Andrews added, “I thought I had a stroke doing COVID. It was a stressful time. A lot was going on, my kids, who were home from New York and they were doing school online college. There were moments there were twitches. They would think that they thought I was having pinched nerves in my neck and they were quite frequent. I was not able to do things that I normally do.”
“I was dropping cups and glasses and at night it it felt like things were running up and down my arm at different times and it was the nerves. I played football well into college and it appears that maybe CTE may be a source of this. We won't know of course you don't know until everything said and done they can study the brain. But those were signs that were missed.”
Erica Tazel explained that when Russell Andrews first told her about the diagnosis, she stayed calmer than expected because it finally gave answers to many questions. She said they had slowly started noticing small changes in his daily life before doctors confirmed the illness. Simple tasks, like cleaning the pool, began taking him much longer than before and even the way he walked was different.
“When he shared the news with me, there was not a sigh of relief, but some understanding of what was happening. And I looked at him across the room and I said, ‘At least now we know what it is, and I still want to be your wife'.”
Russell Andrews further shared that he and Erica Tazel had honest conversations after learning about his illness and understood that their lives will slowly change in the future. He said he wanted her to feel free to make her own decisions because he knew the situation might become difficult.
Still, Erica never made him feel uncertain about their relationship and continued standing beside him with full support. Andrews also said close friends helped him stay strong by reminding him how lucky he was to have caring people around him during such a hard period.
