Michael J. Fox Calls Wife of 37 Years Tracy Pollan ‘My Best Friend’ (Exclusive)

Michael J. Fox’s bond with his wife of 37 years, Tracy Pollan, is as strong as ever.

“She’s my best friend, my partner,” Fox, 64, says of Pollan, 65, in the new issue of PEOPLE. “Tracy’s the first person I check in with and the last person I check in with.”

The couple met when she was cast in his NBC sitcom Family Ties in 1985 — but they were both in relationships at the time (Fox with Nancy McKeon, Pollan with Kevin Bacon).

They didn’t become romantically involved until a few years later when they were both cast in the 1988 movie Bright Lights, Big City.

“It sounds really horrible, but it was one of those things. Someone goes, ‘Did you hear that so-and-so aren’t together anymore?’ And you go, ‘Hmm, that’s too bad. Where’s the phone?’” Fox told PEOPLE in 1989, the year after they wed. (They tied the knot in Woodstock, Vermont, in front of guests including Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid.)

Since then, Fox and Pollan have shared joys — like welcoming their four now-adult children Sam, 36, twins Aquinnah and Schuyler, 30, and Esmé, 23 — and challenges, including Fox’s 1991 Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.

The neurodegenerative disorder, which causes tremors, affects speech and leads to motor skills, has no cure. Which is why in 2000 Fox started The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Pollan sits on the board of the nonprofit organization, which has funded more than $2.5 billion in research since its inception.

“She’s really invested in the work we’re doing,” says Fox’s longtime collaborator Nelle Fortenberry, the co-author of his new book Future Boy. Fortenberry is also on the board and praises Pollan’s contributions. ”It’s great to have Tracy’s commitment.”

In Fox’s New York City office, he keeps a framed Premiere magazine cover featuring his wife’s photo in his office, which is also where he keeps his five Emmy Awards — three for Family Ties, one for Spin City and one for Rescue Me — and the honorary Oscar he won in 2022.

“I contain my life. I don’t need to spill it over,” Fox explains, regarding why he keeps his awards in his office and not in his home. 

To his kids, Fox is just Dad. “They haven’t been historically curious about my career,” he says. And that’s just fine with him. “Everyone has led their own lives. They’re great people.”

Unlike several of his past books, which included many passages about Pollan and his family life, Future Boy zeroes in on the months in 1985 when he filmed Family Ties and Back to the Future simultaneously. Aside from one brief passage that mentions Pollan, the book is career-focused.

Quips Fox with a smile, “I try to give her a break.”

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Future Boy comes out on Oct. 14 and is available now for preorder, wherever books are sold.