Terry Crews’s wife, Rebecca King Crews, revealed that she has had Parkinson’s disease for over a decade.
King Crews shared her diagnosis with her husband during an interview on the Today show and in a People profile. “I felt like I wanted to die,” she told People, describing the moment when the symptoms became too much to take.
King Crews, 60, said she is sharing news of her disease because she was able to undergo a cutting-edge, non-invasive treatment. She traveled to Stanford for the treatment, known as focused ultrasound, and says she is now able to write with her right hand “for the first time in probably three years.”
The treatment was performed on her right side, resulting in the tremors being removed. She said that one side of her body has seen significant improvement, which has also improved her balance.
King Crews said she hopes the procedure, which is “expensive,” becomes readily available to others experiencing Parkinson’s.
“The only reason I’m going public is because I finally have some uplifting information to offer,” she said. “I really believe that this procedure and others like it are the new frontier of medicine.”
Her symptoms first appeared in 2012, but a doctor mistakenly attributed them to anxiety. King Crews said she only received an accurate diagnosis in 2015.
The couple was frank about the emotional and physical toll that the disease took.
“When they say sickness and health, this is the battle that we were designed to fight together,” Terry Crews, 57, said. “Where she’s weak, I’m strong. Where I’m weak, she’s strong. And we built each other up like that for almost 37 years and all the way to forever.”
Getting emotional on air, the American Idol host said, “To watch her write her name for the first time in three years, I don’t know what to say. I’m choked up just thinking about it...”
The Brooklyn 99 actor described his wife as a “superhero” and “the rock of our lives.” He and his wife have been married since 1989, and share five children together.
King Crews said that she focused on other ventures, including a book, an album, and a clothing line, during her battle with Parkinson’s: ”Just keep going. And that’s what I’m going to keep doing,” she said in the Today segment. “I believe that you don’t lay down and die because you got a diagnosis.”
She also paid a heartfelt tribute to her husband, telling People, “Terry is my rock, and I thank God that he has the means to take care of me, allowing me to go to doctors and get the procedures I need.”
