Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, 42, revealed in the British edition of the magazine squire that his father Craig, 71, suffers from Alzheimer’s. He announced this following a joint documentary in which they both travel into their most familiar past and tour Australia carrying out a sort of reminiscence therapy. The protagonist of Thor He explained that his father’s reaction to the news showed him that a negative prognosis can also be accepted without giving up: “He has an incredible perspective about it. It causes fear and anxiety, but it also makes him not take anything for granted and, as long as he can, it motivates him to keep adding as many memories as possible and reliving the old ones.”
Just two years ago, in 2022, Hemsworth, husband of Spanish actress Elsa Pataky, was diagnosed with an increased risk of suffering from Alzheimer’s in the future. He discovered this after recording his documentary without limits, from National Geographic, where he underwent a series of genetic tests to see what his future held.
Then doctors found two copies of the APOE4 gene, one from his father and the other from his mother, whose studies linked him to a higher risk of suffering from the disease. These results revealed that he has between eight and ten more chances of developing it in the future. It was something he didn’t want to hide and which he told publicly to raise awareness among his followers of the importance of undergoing frequent medical checks. “This can be a motivation for people to take better care of themselves and understand that there are steps they can take to prevent it,” he explained in that documentary.
Since the issue had already been addressed on camera, the Hemsworths decided to do it again. and the result is A trip to remember (A Journey to Remember), another one-hour documentary that will air on NatGeo and will be available on Disney+ starting November 24th. Father and son traveled around Australia to visit key family locations, visiting a house in Melbourne where they lived in the early 1990s, stopping at a ranch where Craig had worked with bulls and buffalo in the 1980s, or visiting an outback stream where Chris and his brothers, Luke and Liam, played when they were little.
The actor says this journey into the past with his father was an experiment of sorts to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s and that it was done under the supervision of Dr Suraj Samtani, a clinical psychologist at the University of Sydney’s Center for Healthy Brain Aging. “The science surrounding this reminiscence therapy seemed like a fascinating concept to me,” insists the Marvel interpreter in the exclusive interview with Squire. “Exposure to memories stimulates the hippocampus, the same part of the brain attacked by Alzheimer’s,” he says. But beyond this more scientific part, the emotional part stands out: “What became clear to us was connection. Whether we have another 20 years or 20 days, it’s about holding on to every moment. As well as connecting on a deeper level as frequently as possible.”
And since this disease could be genetically determined for Chris Hemsworth and shape his future, all of this was a lesson he keeps in mind. “Without a doubt, the biggest lesson for me was the comfort crisis we face,” he says. “Removing all safety nets and seeking new adventures is healthy for the mind, spirit, and body. We settle for the familiar, even if it’s a bad decision, because… well, it’s better than uncertainty.” And he insists that’s the real problem for him: “We get stuck in that mindset and our growth suffers. The real lessons are found in constantly questioning that known path.”
Since learning of his genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s, Hemsworth has focused completely on his health. “I’m grateful that I have a whole arsenal of tools to prepare myself better and prevent bad things from happening. The benefit of preventative measures is that they affect the rest of your life,” the actor stressed during an appearance on the program Good morning America. In that conversation, he also said that one of his biggest fears was forgetting his family: “The idea of not being able to remember the life I lived, my wife or my kids… that’s probably my biggest fear.”
Since 2010 Hemsworth has been married to the Spanish actress Elsa Pataky, with whom he has three children: India Rose and twins Sasha and Tristan. The interpreter then said he hadn’t told them anything: “I don’t think they can understand it. It’s not like they had given me a date of death and it would be in a few months. This is not the situation, fortunately. One day I’m sure we’ll talk about it so we can do the checks.” The actor comes from a family that has nothing to do with cinema: his mother was a teacher and his father dedicated himself to caring for children for years. However, the three brothers became actors, two of them already recognized as Hollywood stars.
