The Heartwarming Goal Jeff Bridges Had For Himself Amid Health Issues

Jeff Bridges has accomplished a lot in his illustrious career, from starring in the cult classic movie "The Big Lebowski," to winning Best Actor at the 2010 Oscars for "Crazy Heart." Bridges' biggest accomplishment, however, may have taken place outside the world of film and television, when he walked his daughter Hayley down the aisle for her wedding.

In October 2020, Bridges was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Bridges talked to The Independent about the diagnosis in a 2022 interview, "I had a CAT scan: I had felt, like, a bone in my stomach where a bone wasn't supposed to be, and I thought I better get that checked out."

Bridges' bout with cancer became more complicated after he contracted COVID-19 while recovering from his chemotherapy, and that left him in intensive care for five weeks. Bridges told People in 2022, "COVID made my cancer look like nothing." During that time, Bridges felt a variety of emotions. Cancer had taken Bridges' hair, but it couldn't take away his will to fight. Bridges still had goals he wanted to accomplish, and one of those goals was that he needed to be around to walk his daughter Hayley down the aisle for her wedding.

The road to walking his daughter Hayley down the aisle seemed like an arduous task for Jeff Bridges following his simultaneous fight against COVID and cancer, but Bridges knew he just needed to take it one step at a time.

Bridges told The Independent, "The first goal was how long can I stand up and my record was 45 seconds, that's how long I could stand up. And then it was, how many steps can I take? Oh good. Now I'm going to walk down the hall — all this with oxygen, of course." Bridges worked with a trainer every day to try and reach his goal, stacking more activity as he built up more strength.

By the time the wedding rolled around on August 21, 2021, 10 months after Bridges was diagnosed with cancer, he finally had the strength to walk his daughter Hayley down the aisle to marry her husband, Justin Shane. Bridges gave a speech as well, as Hayley told Brides. "My dad gave a welcome speech and touched on a trait of Justin's that I also mentioned in my vows, which is that kids and dogs love him." One month after the wedding, Bridges announced in September 2021 that his cancer had gone into remission.