Ioan Gruffudd and his girlfriend Bianca Wallace have made their red carpet debut together at a charity night for the MS Society.
The actor, 48, has been dating Bianca, 29, since October 2021 after he split from wife Alice Evans, 53, at the start of last year.
She admitted she ‘lived in fear’ of speaking about it publicly, telling the Daily Mail at the SMS Battles Quiz for the MS society on Thursday: ‘I wasn’t sure when the moment would come for me to open up about my diagnosis.
‘Like so many others I lived in fear of what would happen if people found out. I could have never predicted the overwhelming response that came with my post.
‘Hearing how much I have already helped so many others on their own journey is why I will do whatever I can to support this cause.
‘You never truly know how much you can help change lives until you do.’
Bianca had been diagnosed in 2018 and told her followers earlier this year: ‘I was diagnosed with a very aggressive form, it was aggressive in nature and it came on hard and fast.’
She had been working in accounting at the time and was taken to A&E when she went to pick up a pen and realised she couldn’t.
Bianca revealed: ‘Within a few weeks I couldn’t walk any more, the entirety of my right side was completely wiped out.’
She added that she gets tremors in her hands, explaining: ‘I deal with a lot of drama because of the diagnosis. I go blind in my left eye, I have botox to lift it up. My entire right side has nerve damage.
‘During periods of high stress and high negative emotion, I lose my walk. This happens without fail, I’ve got no way around it so this is why I had to learn how to control my emotions.’
Multiple sclerosis is a lifelong condition that can affect the brain and spinal cord and lead to a wide range of symptoms, including problems with vision, arm or leg movement, sensation or balance.
In many cases, symptoms can be treated and the condition is most commonly diagnosed in people in their 20s and 30s, although it can develop at any age, and is more common in women than men.
The event marked the first time Ioan and Bianca have attended an event together, after regularly coming under fire from his ex Alice.
The couple had been married for 14 years before Ioan filed for divorce in March last year, and filed for a restraining order in February 2022.
Alice meanwhile applied for legal and physical custody of their children, Ella, 12, and Elsie, eight.
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