Brittany Snow, 40, says her father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis taught her to appreciate the time they still have.
On Monday’s episode of “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard,” Snow spoke about her relationship with her father, who was 48 when she was born.
“My dad and I had an interesting relationship growing up, and then when I was doing the soap opera when I was 12, it really shifted for me, and we got really close,” the “Guiding Light” actor said. “We were so close.”
Snow said her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2020, and his condition is “pretty extreme at this point.”
“I shouldn’t refer to it as ‘we were close’ because we are close, but you know, it takes a different shape,” Snow said of her current relationship with him.
She said navigating her father’s illness has brought a mix of emotions, from sadness and grief to gratitude for the time they have together.
“I got six years that I wouldn’t have had if he got cancer or something like that, and I got to really be present in those years because I knew it was happening,” Snow said. “I really don’t take that for granted.”
She said her father’s condition has brought a form of “prolonged grief,” but has also given her time to make sense of the loss instead of being hit by it all at once.
“You’re sort of mining all the stuff before,” she said.
Snow has opened up about her father’s diagnosis in past interviews.
In a 2024 appearance on the “Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen” podcast, Snow said leaving after visiting her father is difficult because he didn’t understand where she was going.
She added that she has to remind herself that he would want her to continue living her own life too.
“It’s a baffling disease to witness, but it’s really, really interesting and beautiful to get to see someone still there, but in a different version of themselves,” Snow said.
