Josh Brolin Details Bell's Palsy Diagnosis, Experiencing Face Paralysis

Josh Brolin got Bell’s Palsy while moving to Montecito, California.

The 56-year-old actor elaborated on the diagnosis in an episode of SiriusXM’s Literally! With Rob Lowe.

“I got so stressed out about moving here because it represented something very specific to me that I ended up contracting a mild case of Bell’s Palsy,” he revealed.

Keep reading to find out more…

When Rob Lowe asked if it was caused by stress, he said: “Absolutely a hundred percent. There’s nothing else to blame it on.”

Josh, who grew up on a ranch in Paso Robles, California, explained that he previously was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy, a temporary facial muscle weakness or paralysis, under a similar situation.

“The last time I got Bell’s Palsy was 17 years ago when I was thinking about moving back up here,” he said. “So the two times I’ve gotten Bell’s Palsy are when I was thinking about moving up here. And then I moved up here and I was like, ‘Oh! it’s all good.’”

When asked whether he’s been able to get to “the other side” of it where memories are not the “number one thing” he thinks about, he said: “Not only that, all these good memories are starting to come up.”

“I’m like, wow, I remember when I was on Biltmore, we’re down in Butterfly. Was it Miramar? All these great things. So all these things are popping out of the ground. My childhood wasn’t as severe as I kind of illustrated it to be. Which we do anyway, as writers and storytellers, we make everything more dramatic and more severe. And not that it wasn’t, because I think it was. But, all the other stuff came too, and it’s been really nice.”

Josh lives in California with his third wife, Kathryn Boyd, with whom he shares daughters Westlyn, 6, and Chapel, 4. He was previously married to Alice Adair, with whom he shares Trevor, 36, and Eden, 30. He also wed Diane Lane in 2004, until their split in 2013.

He previously detailed the move in an interview with The Times, and discussed Kathryn’s reaction.

“My wife was, like, ‘Oh my God, it’s so great’…I was so afraid to move back there. I was freaking out. I contracted a minor case of Bell’s palsy — I had paralysis in my face.”

Listen to the episode…