Brittany Snow, 40, said her father’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease taught her to appreciate the time they still have.
On Monday’s episode of “Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert,” Snow discussed her relationship with her father, who was 48 when she was born.
“My dad and I had an interesting relationship growing up, and it really changed for me when I was 12 years old doing soap operas and we became very close,” the “Guiding Light” actor said. “We were so close.”
Snow said her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2020 and his condition is “very serious right now.”
“I shouldn’t call it ‘We’re close,’ because we’re close, but you know, it takes different forms,” Snow said of her current relationship with him.
She said coping with her father’s illness brought up a range of emotions, from grief and grief to gratitude for the time they had together.
“If he had gotten cancer or something like that, I wouldn’t have had those six years where I had to really be there because I knew this was happening,” Snow said. “I really don’t take it for granted.”
She said her father’s illness caused her a “protracted grief” but also gave her time to understand the loss rather than hit it all at once.
“You’ve been mining everything before,” she said.
Snow has opened up about her father’s diagnosis in past interviews.
In a 2024 appearance on the Broadcast Thoughts with Rachel Bilson and Olivia Allen podcast, Snow said leaving after visiting her father was difficult because he didn’t understand where she was going.
She added that she had to remind herself that he wanted her to get on with her life, too.
“It’s a puzzling disease, but it’s really, really interesting and beautiful to see someone still there, but in a different way,” Snow said.