Brian Austin Green has opened up about a years-long neurological crisis that left him unable to walk, talk, read, or write.
The “Beverly Hills, 90210” alum, 53, detailed the ordeal on Wednesday’s episode of the “Really Famous with Kara Mayer Robinson” podcast, explaining that the health battle struck roughly a decade ago when he was around 39 or 40 years old and still married to Megan Fox, 40. Green described the condition as never receiving a complete diagnosis, though doctors linked it to internal inflammation from diet combined with emotional stress.
“I ended up with this neurological thing, and it was, like, stroke-like symptoms,” Green said on the podcast. The actor revealed that recovery took four and a half years, a period during which he had to relearn the most basic functions.
“I had to learn how to sort of do everything again,” he continued. “I couldn’t read. I couldn’t write. Who I was, essentially, was no more. My brain and my body completely disconnected.”
Green admitted he was terrified that his acting career might be over permanently given how severe his symptoms had become. The father of five even considered what it would mean to completely reinvent himself professionally. During the worst stretch, he was married to Fox from 2010 to 2021, a relationship that overlapped entirely with his mysterious illness.
The “Transformers” star ended the marriage in 2015 when Green was seriously ill and barely able to move, according to previous reporting. The couple later reconciled before Fox ultimately left for good in 2020 after returning from an overseas film shoot and telling Green she “liked [herself] better” while alone.
Once Green began improving physically, he entered therapy and discovered that lifelong emotional patterns had contributed to his physical collapse. He credited a Ukrainian therapist with giving him strict guidance on expressing emotions during difficult conversations.
“I genuinely knew I was just sort of living in a state of constant fight or flight,” he explained on the podcast. The therapy work shifted his focus toward recovery and building what he called “a better version of me.”
“I’d come back to her, and I’d go, ‘Oh my God, I did exactly what you told me to do. I was terrified of doing it, and it absolutely worked, and I had an amazing conversation,'” Green recalled.
In the viral moment that first drew attention to Green’s health history, reports said that Fox had dumped him during his 2015 illness when he could barely move, only to take him back and leave again in 2020. Green confirmed the final split on his own podcast, “With Brian Austin Green,” in May 2020, sharing that Fox returned from abroad and told him she preferred who she was when they were apart.
The actor has faced other serious health challenges in recent years. In 2022, he was bedridden for six weeks with ulcerative colitis, a condition that causes inflammation and ulcers in the digestive tract according to the Mayo Clinic, with symptoms including abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, and weight loss.
Green’s neurological symptoms and the four-year recovery period represent the most severe health crisis he has publicly discussed, with the actor emphasizing how completely his identity was stripped away during the illness. The experience of rebuilding from nothing, he suggested, ultimately led to meaningful psychological growth through therapeutic work.
Green continues to co-parent with Fox while raising his five children and working in entertainment.