Bryan Randall: longtime partner of Gravity star Sandra Bullock dies aged 57 - after three-year battle with ALS

Bryan Randall, the longtime partner of Hollywood superstar actor Sandra Bullock, has died at the age of 57.

The news was confirmed through a family statement on Monday (August 7). It revealed the famous American photographer passed away over the weekend after a secret three-year battle with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

His family shared: "It is with great sadness that we share that on Aug. 5, Bryan Randall passed away peacefully after a three-year battle with ALS. Bryan chose early to keep his journey with ALS private and those of us who cared for him did our best to honour his request.

"We are immensely grateful to the tireless doctors who navigated the landscape of this illness with us and to the astounding nurses who became our roommates, often sacrificing their own families to be with ours. At this time we ask for privacy to grieve and to come to terms with the impossibility of saying goodbye to Bryan."

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, ALS - also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease - is: "a rare neurological disease that affects motor neurons, the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement." There is no known cure for the disease.

Bryan first met Gravity and Miss Congeniality star Sandra Bullock in 2015 after he was the photographer at her son's birthday party. They went public with their relationship later that year.

He is survived by Sandra Bullock, two of her children they raised together - Louis, 13, and Laila, 10 - as well as Randall's older daughter.

Following the death of Bryan Randall, his friends and family have asked for any donations to be made to the ALS Association and the Massachusetts General Hospital in lieu of flowers.