Terry and Rebecca Crews Reveal Her Years-Long Battle with Parkinson’s: ‘We’re Going Through This Together’ (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Rebecca Crews was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2015 after experiencing four years of mysterious symptoms.

• Last month, she underwent a cutting-edge new procedure that uses sound waves directed into the brain to eradicate some of her debilitating symptoms.

• “The only reason I’m going public [with her diagnosis],” Rebecca tells PEOPLE, “is because I finally have some uplifting information to offer.”

On the morning that Rebecca Crews’ battle with Parkinson’s disease finally pushed her over the edge, her husband Terry found her kneeling beside her bed praying for a miracle. “I hadn’t slept in three days [due to the disease],” says Rebecca, “and I felt like I wanted to die.” That’s when Terry walked into their bedroom in their L.A. home to show Rebecca a post he’d just read on his cellphone about a groundbreaking new treatment—using sound waves—that had just been approved by the FDA to treat her neurodegenerative disorder. “I’d been reading about this and researching it for ten years,” recalls Terry, who was excited over the news and eager to share it with his exhausted wife. “I told her, ‘Honey, I really think this will help you.’”

Turns out Terry’s hunch was correct. And eight months after that hopeless morning last July, Rebecca has not only used the cutting-edge procedure to drastically reduce the uncontrollable tremors associated with the disease, she’s finally sharing the story of her harrowing, 16-year battle with Parkinson’s. “The only reason I’m going public,” says the 60-year-old mother of five grown kids who traveled to Stanford Hospital in Stanford, Calif., to have the treatment performed on her right side, “is because I finally have some uplifting information to offer.”

The non-invasive treatment, known as focused ultrasound, has provided Rebecca and her devoted former-NFL-player-turned-Hollywood-star husband Terry with the first glimmer of hope they’ve known in years. “It hurts,” says Terry, 57, known by millions as the high-octane host of the reality show America’s Got Talent. “It’s definitely been hard to watch her on those days when I see her so worn out by this. We’re going through this together.”

Terry and Rebecca in their backyard on March 27.
Credit: Matt Sayles

Rebecca is one of nearly a million Americans living with Parkinson’s, a progressive brain disorder that can cause tremors, stiffness, balance issues, depression and sleep disruption. But she’s one of less than a hundred patients who have used this new therapy (she returns to Stanford Hospital in October to have it performed on her left side) to help with her shaking limbs, unsteadiness, and stiffness. “It’s very cutting edge,” says Dr. Vivek Buch, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University. “And I think she did it for others as much as she did it for herself. Not for publicity, but to be part of moving the field forward so others can also benefit from this new therapy.”

The first indication that something was wrong came four years before Rebecca’s 2015 diagnosis. At the time the couple, who wed in 1989, were in the midst of patching up their marriage when she began noticing that her left toes would go numb whenever she rode her bike. “I thought it was just the stress because of everything we were going through,” she says. In the months that followed, her leg began dragging, she started forgetting where she parked her car, and her trainer noticed that her left arm seemed oddly stiff. “And then one morning I woke up with a tremor and I thought, ‘Hmmm, I know what that means,’” says Rebecca, whose grandmother and uncle were diagnosed with Parkinson’s when she was young.

Terry and Rebecca (with family members in October 2024) at the opening of her clothing boutique.
Credit: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty

But for the next several years doctors were unable to explain what was causing her symptoms, and Terry couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with his wife. “I would ask her, ‘What’s going on,’” he remembers, “and she’d say, ‘Nothing.’ It was clear she was trying to tough it out.” Rebecca finally received the news she feared in 2015 after a neurologist at USC connected the dots between all her physical symptoms. “I told the doctor, ‘I don’t receive this,’” says Rebecca, a devout Christian who turned to her faith and prayer for strength. “I was determined to fight it.”

As her symptoms got worse, she went on a series of medications—starting with a plant-based drug—aimed at replacing her levels of dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for regulating movement, and reducing rigidity and tremors. The drugs helped, but she experienced a range of side effects that included nausea and insomnia. Desperate for answers, Terry was constantly online researching the disease and reading up on the latest treatments. “I’m always looking for new and different things that will help,” he says.

Terry and Rebecca (at their LA home) on March 27.
Credit: Matt Sayles

By 2019, her tremors had not only increased, but Rebecca was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy in 2020. (She’s currently cancer free.) Despite the rough days, she refuses to let Parkinson’s slow her down and pours her energy into various projects, ranging from the online church she started in 2023 to the couple’s podcast and her clothing line, which she sells out of her Pasadena-based retail outlet. “I’m doing 90 percent of what I want to do,” she says. She credits her husband with keeping her grounded. “Terry is my rock,” she says, “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.” Despite his hectic work schedule, often requiring travel, Terry insists his real job is taking care of Rebecca. “My mission is to make sure she gets the best care possible,” he says. “Where she’s weak, I’m strong. There are days when there’s nothing I can do and I just have to hold her as she cries in my arms.”

Both Rebecca and Terry are confident that one day a cure will be found for the disease. Until then, she’s living day by day and thankful for all the blessings that have come her way, especially the breakthrough treatment she underwent in March. “God told me, ‘Keep living, Rebecca. Keep living like you’re healed,’” she says on a recent afternoon in her living room as she stands up to proudly show a visitor how she can balance on her right leg. “I couldn’t do that before. I couldn’t even print out my name or fill out a form [due to the tremors]. But I can now.”

For more of Terry and Rebecca Crews’s exclusive interview, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday.

Read the original article on People