As rewarding and essential as being a care partner is, the experience can also feel isolating and anonymous. Celebrity caregivers give voice to common joys and challenges.
Bryan Cranston, of Breaking Bad fame, lost his mother to Alzheimer's disease twenty years ago. Cranston was moved by the care his mother received in her dedicated Alzheimer's community. “The caregiver is the unheralded hero of humanity,” Cranston said. “I revere caregivers as I do first responders.”
Earlier this year, Senior Spirit featured celebrities making a difference in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. This month, we’re looking to famous personalities to learn about their experiences as care partners for loved ones.
Queen Latifah
The actress and musician, famous for her roles in Girls Trip and Bringing Down the House, has shared about the ups and downs of her caregiving experience. In 2018, she lost her mother, Rita Owens, to interstitial lung disease (ILD). In 2020, she appeared in a TV program on A&E, Beyond Breathless, about the disease, along with the New York Yankees’ Bernie Williams, who also lost a parent to ILD.
Queen Latifah described her mom as “funny, stylish, fly, cool, and beautiful too.” During the time she was her mom’s caregiver, Queen Latifah said she was working a lot, and the strain was real. She prioritized taking time for herself by going for a walk, watching a sci-fi show, or getting her nails done.
“We appreciated being able to be helpful to her, but we knew we had to be able to take care of ourselves too,” she told SELF magazine. “Because we’re in it: We’re in it with the people we love, and we want to have a positive outlook. We’re in for this fight, for them.”
Henry Winkler
“The Fonz” was a long-time caregiver. After Winkler’s mother suffered a stroke in 1987, he and his sister became her caregivers for the next 10 years until her death. As his mother was dealing with chronic pain due to limb spasticity, Winkler was there to ease her way. “My hat is off to caregivers. My respect is at full tilt for caregivers,” Winkler shared. “The dedication, the patience, just the wear of it all to consistently take care of somebody else—that’s a hero.”
Taylor Swift
Superstar Taylor Swift was by her father’s side, along with her family, for weeks in the summer of 2025 after he underwent quadruple bypass surgery. “My brother, my mom and I were each taking shifts in the ICU and staying with him 24/7,” she told AARP. Once her father was able to return home, he needed a lot of new equipment to help him move around at home during his recovery. “I’m building his shower chair and his walker and his bed,” Taylor said. “It’s just surreal, man. We just all moved in with him the whole summer, pretty much.” She says he’s now doing very well.
Rob Lowe
In his thirties, actor Rob Lowe and his brothers cared for their mother through her stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis. He often felt overwhelmed dealing with medical paperwork and coordinating in-home care. Since then Lowe has made it a mission to raise awareness about the challenges caregivers face. He’s partnered with the nonprofit Embracing Carers to promote fair workplace policies for care partners, and has authored op-eds in U.S. Today and elsewhere.
“When you’re caring for a loved one,” Lowe writes, “there’s nothing you won’t do (or sacrifice) to give them as much comfort and peace of mind as you can possibly provide. Often, that means you’ll skip your social obligations, wreck your diet, suffer sleep deprivation, and even risk your career, all to help a loved one through the most difficult time of their life.” Self-care and supportive networks are essential, he says, for individual care partners, the people they care for, and the whole community.
