When Sandra Bullock stopped being seen together with her lover, Hollywood gossips determined they’d cut up. Shut buddies inform BARBARA McMAHON even they did not know he was slowly succumbing to motor neurone illness, with the iron-willed actress at his facet

Secrecy and discretion are hardly phrases you affiliate with bare-all, tell-all Hollywood. 

However for Sandra Bullock and her companion Bryan Randall, they had been mottoes by which they lived.

Whereas some males might need been tempted to make use of their well-known companion’s title to achieve particular therapy, Randall – ‘the love of my life’, as 59-year-old Bullock as soon as known as him – was the polar reverse.

As his buddy Sarah Killingsworth instructed The Mail on Sunday final week: ‘He was the sweetest man and an absolute gentleman. He was super-private about his relationship with Sandra and used to say to me ‘I am a vault’. He would not even say her title.’

Killingsworth and husband Robert obtained to know the Oscar-winning actress’s companion as a result of he was a eager fisherman and ordered tools from their enterprise in California.

For Sandra Bullock and her companion Bryan Randall, they had been mottoes by which they lived

Whereas some males might need been tempted to make use of their well-known companion’s title to achieve particular therapy, Randall – ‘the love of my life’, as 59-year-old Bullock as soon as known as him – was the polar reverse

Uncommon pictures obtained by DailyMail.com present late Bryan Randall in his early modeling days in France

‘He was a Pacific north-west boy,’ she says. ‘He got here from the mountains and the rivers and he was a faithful salmon fisherman. We used to joke that we’d open a Hollywood fishing deal with store collectively.’

Now it is emerged it was with the identical discretion and down-to-earth values that Randall and Bullock handled the profoundly unhappy information he had Motor Neurone Illness.

Some celebrities might have chosen such a second to do a tell-all interview, publicising their companion’s plight. Others might even have signed as much as a actuality TV present, to ‘shine a light-weight’ on the reality of such an sickness.

Not Bullock. Randall’s sickness solely turned public final week, when it was introduced that he had died on the age of 57, three years after he was recognized.

For these three years, not one phrase of his sickness leaked out. Amid hypothesis about their relationship, Bullock remained silent, specializing in her companion, their household, and managing the horrible actuality of his sickness.

In 2020 there have been wild rumours that the couple’s relationship was on the rocks as a result of Randall, a good-looking former mannequin and profitable photographer, had not been seen with Bullock as she filmed the drama The Unforgivable. Bullock mentioned nothing, merely leaving it to her agent to disclaim the rumours.

Randall was recognized with ALS in 2017, however the couple stored his battle with the illness a secret till his loss of life on August 5. They’re pictured above October 2017 

The couple, who stored their relationship out of the highlight, pictured on the world premiere of Oceans 8 in 2018

In the meantime Randall moved into one in all Bullock’s properties in Malibu, whereas she divided her time between there and her most important residence in Beverly Hills together with her two adopted kids.

In June final yr, Bullock introduced she was taking an performing hiatus. ‘Proper now, work in entrance of the digicam must take a pause,’ she mentioned, claiming she wished to give attention to her kids. ‘I need to be at residence.’ The key fact was, nonetheless, that Bullock was coping with what her sister Gesine final week described as ‘this merciless illness’.

Such iron-willed resolve to not use this private tragedy for skilled publicity, nor to be tempted to quell the hurtful rumours about their relationship by revealing the reality, are actually, in hindsight, all-too admirable.

Final household outing: Sandra Bullock and her longtime companion Bryan Randall had been final seen out collectively in Studio Metropolis in July, 2020 alongside together with her two adopted kids Louis, 13, and Laila, 11. Randall died on August 5 following a personal three-year battle with ALS 

Heartbreaking: The photographer, seen beaming right here three years in the past, wished to maintain his journey with ALS non-public, his household shared on Monday 

The reality was solely found by Sarah Killingsworth, too, final week: ‘Randall disappeared a while in 2021 and we did not hear from him and he stopped answering my emails. I assumed it was a bit unusual however figured that he had simply moved on. We had no concept that he was sick. I do not assume many individuals did. It is such a tragedy.’ Actress Octavia Spencer was one in all many celebrities expressing condolences, saying Bullock had misplaced ‘her soulmate’, including ‘the world misplaced a proficient, good-looking, all-around good man!’

Such sorrow is even sharper for buddies of Bullock’s as a result of, till she met Randall in 2015, her love life had been a catastrophe.

She might have been ‘America’s sweetheart’ after making a collection of hit rom-coms however she had a string of failed relationships with actors reminiscent of Tate Donovan, Matthew McConaughey and Ryan Gosling.

Having spent a lot of her childhood in Germany (the place her mom was born), she moved again to the US in her late teenagers and spent years slugging away on TV motion pictures as a result of, she mentioned, she wasn’t ‘conventionally stunning sufficient’ to be a number one woman.

Household time: Bullock has two adopted kids — son Louis, 13, and daughter Laila, 11 — and Bryan has an grownup daughter named Skylar from a earlier relationship (seen in 2018)

Her plus one: The couple seen on the London premiere of Oceans 8 in 2018

Nonetheless, she scored a collection of cinema hits – together with Pace, A Time To Kill and Miss Congeniality. Then in 2010 she gained an Oscar for her function as a mom taking in a troubled African-American teen who went on to change into a profitable soccer participant in The Blind Aspect. 

Nonetheless, simply two weeks later it was revealed that her husband Jesse James – the tattooed host of a cable TV present known as Monster Storage, who she had married in 2005 – had been serially untrue. Bullock was devastated.

Donald Biehn, Bullock’s performing coach when she was a scholar and later her mentor, instructed me final week: ‘Sandy’s had some tragedies in her life, together with that rat husband uncovered as a cheater. However when it occurred, she stored out of the limelight till she was prepared to come back again. I believe that can occur now too.’

He mentioned as an aspiring actress, ‘she was well-prepared, enthusiastic and did not have any ego’, including: ‘She wasn’t concerned with being a star. All she wished was to be actress.

‘When success got here, she did not let it go to her head.

‘She’s at all times been a delight and fully unpretentious.’

Buddies had been stunned when the endearingly impartial Bullock introduced she’d married James. 5 years youthful, he had had a primary marriage, fathered two kids and was attempting to untangle himself from a second marriage to a porn star who was pregnant with their son.

Claiming it was a celebration of her forty first birthday, Bullock invited 270 buddies, together with co-stars Keanu Reeves, Hugh Grant and William Shatner, to what was in truth a shock marriage ceremony.

The couple appeared joyful, however then, as she was basking within the glow of her Oscar win, an American tabloid revealed an interview with a tattoo artist and mannequin known as Michelle ‘Bombshell’ McGhee, who mentioned she and James had been having an affair. One other tattoo artist disclosed she had additionally been having an affair with him.

Within the aftermath, James callously referred to Bullock as ‘some Hollywood actress,’ claimed he had misplaced his bearings and wished to get again to his former life. He’s now reportedly on his fifth marriage.

Bullock went into seclusion and, when she emerged, declared she had filed for divorce. Plainly it was via mentioning her son as a single mom that the actress met, and commenced courting, Randall after he was employed to take pictures of her son’s fifth birthday.

Randall, too, had had a bumpy previous. Born in Oregon, he moved to Los Angeles and attended performing faculty. Along with his straightforward allure, attractiveness and 6ft 3in peak, he turned a trend mannequin, showing within the French version of Vogue and dealing for Hugo Boss and Saint Laurent. 

Within the Nineteen Nineties, he went into rehab for substance abuse whereas his fiancee was pregnant with their daughter. He was not round for his lady’s formative years and was taken to court docket for non-payment of £1,500 in baby assist and was arrested twice for drink-driving and a probation violation.

His fiancee, who had a heroin behavior, died after being in a coma and Randall is alleged to have ‘stepped up as a father’ to their daughter when she was 14. Sober for years, he turned totally dedicated to his daughter, who’s now 29.

Earlier than assembly Bullock, Randall took courses on the prestigious Anthony Meindl performing workshop in Los Angeles, the place proprietor Anthony Meindl mentioned: ‘He was a enjoyable man however we additionally had lengthy, deep conversations about his journey to sobriety and therapeutic. All of us have challenges and he was very happy with what he achieved and he stayed sober. He moved on to images. His footage had been stunning.

‘I did not know he was sick. It’s totally unhappy. My coronary heart goes out to Sandra. She pulled again, most likely to care for him.’

Randall’s straightforward persona helped make his relationship with Bullock so successful, as she revealed in a TV interview when she gave a uncommon glimpse of their life collectively. She praised Randall for taking up each of her adopted kids.

‘I had my son Louis first. Then once I met Randall, we hadn’t been collectively that lengthy and I mentioned, ‘Keep in mind that NDA [non-disclosure agreement] you signed while you photographed my son? You realize that also holds… as a result of I am bringing residence a baby once I come again from Toronto.’

She mentioned Randall had been ‘joyful and scared’ after she instructed him she was adopting daughter Laila. He’s ‘very affected person, a saint’, she mentioned.

‘I discovered the love of my life. We share two stunning kids – three kids,’ she added, referring to Randall’s daughter. ‘It is one of the best factor ever.’

Although Bullock was reluctant to marry once more, it was reported that the couple exchanged private vows at a non-binding celebration within the Bahamas in 2017.

‘I do not want a paper to be a faithful companion or a faithful mom,’ Bullock mentioned. ‘I do not have to be instructed to be ever-present within the hardest of occasions or to climate the storm with man.’

Her mentor Donald Biehn instructed me: ‘She was very articulate about not marrying Randall and was sincere about that as a result of she’s an honourable individual, however clearly she did all the things she may to assist him via a horrible sickness.’

With an estimated fortune of close to £200million accrued by asking for a share of field workplace earnings somewhat than a one-off payment, Bullock was capable of put her full sources into serving to her ailing love.

Because the illness progressed, he discovered it calming to dwell in her beachside Malibu residence, the place a crew of medical doctors and nurses offered round the clock care.

He was additionally sorted at Bullock’s residence in Beverly Hills in a set of rooms in the back of the property. Throughout Covid, medics had been examined as much as 3 times every week as they went out and in.

The dangerous information was contained in a good circle. One in every of Bullock’s largest considerations was the impact the sickness would have on her kids. The couple’s relationship was additionally put beneath pressure – however Bullock by no means faltered in her care.

Randall died on August 5 and is believed to have been cremated in a ceremony in California attended solely by shut household and buddies.

Bullock, who has not mentioned something in public about her companion’s loss of life, is now left to assist her beloved kids.

One hopes it can consolation her that she did one of the best she may for Randall – away from the highlight.