Our look at caregiving takes a celebrity twist for Father’s Day. We’re spotlighting the high-profile dads who have been cared for in their last years by their adult children while also looking at celebrities who have cared for their fathers. Whether fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, we are all affected by caregiving – either as the care recipient or caregiver.

According to the 2015 report from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, one-third of those over age 50 receiving care from a family member were men – mostly dads being cared for by an adult child.  And, with more men stepping into caregiving roles – 40 to 45 percent of caregivers are now men according to recent findings from AARP and Pew Research Center – it’s not just daughters caring for fathers but sons as well.

Read Sherri’s Forbes article: “The Rise of the Male Caregiver”

And while statistics show women outlive men on average three to four years, according to the Assisted Living Federation of America, there is a 7 to 1 ratio of women to men in assisted living facilities and a 10 to 1 ratio in nursing homes. This could be based on women living longer than men but anecdotally it also points to a trend in widowed or divorced fathers being cared for at home by an adult child or even moving in with one of his children.

Read PBS Next Avenue article: “The Difference in Caring for Moms versus Dads”

In celebration of Father’s Day, we spotlight both high-profile dads who have been cared for by their adult children as well as celebrities who have cared for their fathers.

Happy Father’s Day!

Caring for Celebrity Dads

Casey Kasem

Losing his battle with Lewy body dementia in 2014 at age 82, the iconic radio host of “American Top 40” countdown of the greatest musical hits which broadcast from 1970 to 2009, left a legacy of entertainment but also elder abuse. His story is a cautionary tale for caregivers on why it is so important to have the family conversation before it is too late. While his mind was locked in the fading memories that dementia brings, his second wife and adult children were locked in legal battles over his care. His adult children from his first marriage

fought for and won custodial guardianship only to face ongoing challenges with their stepmom in caring

for their father the last years of his life.

Read Sherri’s article for Forbes on Casey Kasem’s legacy

 

 

Steve McQueen

The uber cool quintessential American male, actor Steve McQueen of films including Bullitt, The Great Escape and The Thomas Crown Affair fame among many other memorable movies, battled the last year of his life with mesothelioma. Seeking alternative treatments in Mexico, his 20 –year-old son, Chad, 21-year-old daughter, Terry, along with his third wife, Barbara Minty, were by his side when he passed. Terry and Chad had spent a lot of time with their father, especially in that last year of his life helping to care for him. In fact, Terry (who lost her own health battle in 1998), told TV talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael that her father only went to Mexico for experimental treatment because of his children.  After being told by Los Angeles cancer experts that he only had months to live, he decided to try everything to find a few more years with his kids and wife. Sadly, he lost his battle all too soon although his enduring legacy is being kept alive by his son, Chad.

 

 

Omar Sharif – Egyptian-born heartthrob with eyes that melted your soul, actor Omar Sharif played a Russian, an Arab and a German Jew as star of some of the most memorable films of all-time including Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia and Funny Girl. After years on the silver screen, the actor’s son, Tarek-El Sharif, noticed his father’s memory loss when recounting stories of his most memorable movies. Tarek cared for his father, who divorced his mother in 1974 and never remarried,

before losing him to Alzheimer’s in 2015 at age 83.

 

 

Celebrities Caring for Their Dads

 

Laura Bush – The former First Lady played caregiver to both her older father and older mother as their only child. While campaigning with her husband George Bush who was running for governor of Texas, her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Laura played back-up to her mother who was primary caregiver, but she poignantly wrote in The Shriver Report:  A Woman’s Nation Takes on Alzheimer’s about the impact to families when Alzheimer’s disease happens.

 

“What my mother noticed first was that my father could no longer fill out bank deposit slips. He would stare at the lines on the forms, a look of confusion washing over his face. So Mother began to make the deposits for him. We never got a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or a specific form of cognitive failing. But we saw his mind erode. Once, he asked our daughter Barbara to get him some ‘B & Bs.’ He meant M&Ms, but he kept saying ‘B & Bs.’ In her 10-year-old way, she understood him and came out of the grocery store with the brown bag of the bright candy just the same.”

Read about other First Lady Caregivers

 

Gloria Estefan – Grammy-winning singer, Gloria Estefan, has made us want to get up and dance ever since she came on the scene with the “Miami Sound Machine” which included her producer husband, Emilio. Now with her oldest daughter singing alongside mom, family values have always meant a lot to Estefan. Her father, a Cuban immigrant who escaped Castro’s regime for a better life in America where he joined the U.S. Army, was exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam resulting in his multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis years later.  Estefan told Huff Post in 2015 of her caregiving role for her dad and her love of veterans and America:

“The minute I could do anything for the VA, including when my dad was in the VA hospital the last five years of his life… my mom and I would go every day to help the nurses in the nursing room home floor because there were so swamped,” she added. “We would feed my dad and bathed him and take care of him, but then we would help them in whatever way needed, to feed the other vets that were there and help them out. That was when I was a teenager. So I’ve been involved [with the VA] on a personal level for many, many years.”

 

Willie Geist – Host of NBC Sunday Today and MSNBC’s Morning Joe, followed in his father’s journalistic footsteps. His dad was a reporter for the New York Times and is a financial reporter for CBS News. But when it comes to dealing with a devastating diagnosis, Willie’s dad, Bill Geist, took an oath of silence for 20 years. In 1992, Bill Geist was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a secret he kept from the public and most of his family until he “came out” in 2012. Before Muhammad Ali (who was diagnosed in 1984 although a recent scientific report states he was probably suffering from the disease since 1978) and Michael J. Fox (who was diagnosed in 1984) made Parkinson’s a household word, Geist felt the stigma on his career would be intolerable. While the older Geist’s wife is his main caregiver, since father and son live in the tri-state area, it is his son who will be there to support his mother as his father’s disease progresses.

 

 

 

 

Tess Gerritsen – Best-selling author of the crime novel series, Rizzoli and Isles, which was also made into a high-rated TNT TV show starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander, Gerritsen found herself in another role as caregiver for a father with early on-set dementia.

 

Read more in Sherri’s 2013 interview with Gerritsen

 

 

 

Marg Helgenberger – Before she starred in films such as Erin Brokovich and Mr. Brooks and spent years on TV on top-rated shows such as China Beach and CSI, Helgenberger was just a Northwestern University college student when her father was diagnosed with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis (MS). During this same time, Helgenberger’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, thrusting the young woman into her caregiving role for both parents. She lost her father only five years after his diagnosis but still raises awareness for the disease through the Race to Erase MS Event and Nancy Davis Foundation.

 

Read an excerpt of Sherri’s book interview with Helgenberger

 

 

Richard Lui – He’s been an MSNBC and NBC anchor out of New York City for years but since 2014 he’s led a bicoastal life after becoming a caregiver for his father who lives in San Francisco and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011. Lui is one of 16 million men nationwide – approximately 40 percent of caregivers – who are caregiving for an older loved one. He describes his caregiver role initially as the remote or long-distance caregiver, a role 8 million Americans are in today. Since working out his flexible work situation with NBC – being able to travel between New York City and the Bay Area – he is now back-up caregiver to his mom while they keep his father at home. In interviews, Lui has cited his family’s faith (his father was a

Presbyterian minister) and his better understanding of dementia in helping him be a better caregiver.

 

 

 

 

 

Rob Lowe – The perpetually youthful looking member of the ‘80s Brat Pack films who has created a canon of acting work in both TV (The West Wing, Parks & Recreation, Code Black) and movies (Austin Powers, Tommy Boy), Lowe has also played caregiver to a father and mother. While he lost his mom to breast cancer in 2003 (a disease that also took his grandmother and great-grandmother), he also cared for his father who successfully went into remission after his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis.

 

 

Michelle Obama – A true champion of the Sandwich Generation caregivers during her years as the nation’s First Lady, Obama knew all too well the toll of caregiving on children – both younger and older kids. As a young girl, she grew up and helped care for a father who was diagnosed in his early 30s with multiple sclerosis (MS). Although he coped with this devastating progressive disease that has no cures or effective treatments, she spoke in interviews of watching her brave, resilient father walk to work using two canes. Obama lost her father in 1991, but it was these early days of watching and caring for a father with a chronic illness that gave her firsthand knowledge of the plight of the nation’s 65 million caregivers.

 

 

 

 

 

Holly Robinson Peete – Long before she starred on “Meet the Peetes,” Holly was a young college student at Sarah Lawrence. Then one day, her world stopped. Her father called to share that he was just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. While she didn’t know it then, this was Holly’s first step into caregiving and onto the path of being one of the nation’s top advocates for both Parkinson’s and autism (which affects her son RJ).

 

 

 

 

Read more in Sherri’s excerpted book interview with Holly

 

 

 

Michelle Pfeiffer – Famous as much for her amazing looks and acting talent as for her privacy and protection of her family, Pfeiffer has referenced in recent interviews that life journey of caring for older parents. In particular, Pfeiffer, who was noted to be close to her father whom she lost to cancer a few years ago, cites adopting a healthier diet to combat the ravages of chronic illnesses such as cancer and Alzheimer’s (which her mother suffers with). Living in San Francisco, an hour’s plane ride from Los Angeles where she grew up, made Pfeffier a long-distance caregiver for her father – a supporting role she played with her two sisters and brother who still live in Southern California.

 

 

 

 

 

David Hyde Pierce – A longtime advocate and champion for the Alzheimer’s Association, Pierce takes Alzheimer’s personally. His grandfather suffered with the disease, back when not much was known about a disease that affects more than 5 million Americans and accounts for 70-80 percent of all dementia diagnoses. Then his father George, an insurance salesman and amateur actor, was ravaged by a different dementia after he suffered a stroke in the early ’90s following heart surgery. While not officially diagnosed, Hyde Pierce’s father may have had vascular dementia, a common result for stroke patients, where the brain is damaged by impaired blood flow to the brain. After his mother died, Hyde Pierce along with his siblings became the care team for his father.

 

Watch Sherri interview David Hyde Pierce from the red carpet of an  Alzheimer’s Association event:

 

 

Madeleine Stowe – It’s hard to think of Madeleine Stowe being distracted by anything except Daniel Day-Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans. But this star of stage and screens small and large, became a young caregiver to her father who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while Stowe was not even in her teens. She recalls accompanying her father to doctor and other health care appointments, feeding him and helping to turn him in bed. At the same time, she was studying to be a classic pianist – keeping her at home and entertaining her father rather than socializing with her young peers. After losing her father when she was only 25, she only in recent years has turned her experience into advocacy. Partnering with the biotech company Genzyme, a developer of MS medicines, she helped launch Lights, Camera, Take Action on MS, an initiative designed to educate and empower the MS community to help manage the disease.

 

 

 

Maria Shriver – When it comes to celebrity voices on Alzheimer’s, none are more prominent than Maria Shriver’s. As a longtime, passionate advocate for the Alzheimer’s disease that afflicted her father, Sargent Shriver, she has become a warrior in the war to end Alzheimer’s. Including her work for the Alzheimer’s Association, her HBO documentary on the disease, her co-producing role in the film Still Alice that won Julianne Moore her Oscar, Shriver has recently launched Move For Minds with Equinox Sports Clubs across the U.S. – part of the Maria Shriver and the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement. If anyone can move heaven and earth on this disease, it’s Maria Shriver.

 

 

 

Lea Thompson – Lea Thompson is currently bursting with family pride over directing her two daughters, Madelyn and Zoey Deutsch, in the independent film (also written by Madelyn), The Year of Spectacular Men. But it’s another family connection – to Alzheimer’s – that has made this TV (Caroline in the City) and film actress (Back to the Future), an advocate in the fight against this disease. Statistics show one in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s and that plays out in Thompson’s family. She talks about both her stepfather and father-in-law suffering with Alzheimer’s, a disease which also afflicted both her maternal and fraternal grandmothers. Thompson is encouraged by the research and science being put into finding treatments and cures but also advocates for the family caregivers, like herself, to take good care of themselves.

 

Watch Sherri Snelling interview Lea Thompson about how caregivers can find “Me Time” like Lea:

 

Reese Witherspoon – Despite her impressive talent as an Oscar-winning dramatic actress (Walk the Line), comedy actress (Legally Blonde movies), and recent role as producer of HBO’s award-winning Big Little Lies series, Reese Witherspoon’s sunny, cheerful, successful life didn’t feel that way in 2012. It was that year that her Nashville, Tenn.-based parent’s marriage became tabloid headlines as her mother took her estranged husband back despite his bigamous marriage to another woman. What her mother seemed to know, after all she is a PhD and former pediatric nurse, is that her husband and Reese’s father was suffering from early on-set Alzheimer’s, a diagnosis not formally made or reported. However, he stated he did not know the woman he married (the union was soon annulled), he was found to be a hoarder and he was overspending straining Reese’s financial support for him. This heartache for Reese was two-fold:  To see her once prominent father, a former Naval Reserve otolaryngologist (ENT physician), ravaged by erratic and eccentric behavior; and to know that her beloved mother’s life was devastated by a husband she loved but whose memory was being erased. But Reese has dedicated herself to visiting Nashville as often as she can to provide care and support for her dad and her caregiving mom and to ensure her children have a relationship with their grandfather before his memories are all gone.