In a touching glimpse into their private lives, Martin Scorsese’s daughter Francesca has shared a rare video on TikTok featuring her mother Helen Morris, who has been battling Parkinson’s disease for over 30 years.
In the video posted on September 2, the 25-year-old actress and filmmaker was seen gently helping her mom eat a meal at the table, offering her a drink, and tucking her hair behind her ear. She captioned the post with a moving statement: “Never take health for granted.”
A touching reminder
Francesca is seen engaging in gentle conversation with her mother, then affectionately rubbing her arm before reaching for a plate of food and feeding her tenderly. The text in the video read, “Reminder to tell your parents you love them because one day you will have to take care of them the way they once took care of you.” She also added hashtags in the caption, including #parkinsonsawareness and #martinscorsese, in an effort to spread awareness about the degenerative disease. The video ends on a lighter note, with Francesca sharing a laugh with her mother and another person at the table before switching off the camera.
Helen’s Parkinson’s battle
Morris, who married the Departed director in 1999, has lived with Parkinson’s disease, the same disease Ozzy Osbourne had been battling for years before his death, for more than three decades. Martin Scorsese previously opened up about his wife’s health on the This Life of Mine with James Corden podcast in February 2024, praising her strength and resilience. “She’s had Parkinson’s disease for about 30 years now,” Scorsese said, adding, “My complaining is nothing compared to what suffering from a condition like that does…we live with it, and it changes how you perceive life.”
In August 2024, Francesca opened up about her mother’s health battle on TikTok saying, “I feel like on TikTok, I show my dad, I show glitz and glamour,” Francesca shared. “But I feel like I need to start sharing this side of my life with my mom. My mom has had Parkinson’s since she was in her early 30s, and now she’s in her late 70s.” She detailed their everyday experiences living with a loved one suffering from a neurodegenerative disorder. She mentioned spending an entire day in the ER after Helen had a health scare and the family thought she was having a heart attack. “Usually, when she goes to the emergency room, it has to do with infections or falls or broken bones, confusion – it’s sort of turned into Parkinson’s dementia at this point,” she said, continuing, “We got really scared that maybe she was having a heart attack. Because she’s essentially bed-bound, she ended up having multiple pulmonary embolisms, so she had multiple blood clots in her right lung.”
Despite her diagnosis, Helen has often stood beside her family at major public occasions. In January 2024, she joined Martin and Francesca at the Golden Globes, posing on the red carpet alongside his other daughters Cathy and Domenica. In 2023, she also appeared at the Cannes Film Festival premiere of Killers of the Flower Moon in France, where both Martin and Francesca supported her as she walked the red carpet.
