Star magazine’s Sandra Bullock cover is truly unfortunate

Days after Sandra Bullock’s longtime partner died, a US gossip rag has released a deeply distasteful cover story to newsstands.

Sandra Bullock on the cover of Star.

Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock is in mourning following the death of her longtime partner, Bryan Randall, who died one week ago at the age of 57.

Randall had been suffering from the degenerative illness ALS, something that the deeply private pair had kept out of the public eye until after his death.

It’s no surprise that US celeb gossip magazine Star would feature Bullock on the front cover of their next issue, released six days after Randall’s death.

What’s surprising is the accompanying story – clearly filed and sent to the printers before the news was made public on Monday.

“Sandra & Bryan – IT’S OVER,” the cover story announces, which seems a particularly heartless way to announce that Bullock’s partner of close to a decade had passed away.

But the other cover lines show Star had no idea what the couple were dealing with: “Heartbreak, Jealousy & Separate Bedrooms,” Star declares, promising to dish on “why Bryan walked away after 8 years,” their “awkward bickering at dinner parties!” and “how she told the kids”.

The unfortunate latest cover of Star magazine.

Another photo purports to show evidence of their split, as Bullock “buys herself flowers on 59th birthday!”

Twitter user Paul Lang shared the cover on social media, writing: “It must have been a loooong week for the editors at Star magazine, waiting for this cover to come out today”.

An excerpt from the article, which has not been posted on Star’s website, has an anonymous source telling the mag Bullock and Randall had been “drifting apart and leading separate lives for a while”, claiming Randall “felt neglected and taken for granted” and was “resentful” of Bullock’s career.

“There’s no going back for either of them,” the source said.

Bullock and Randall make a rare red carpet appearance in 2018. Picture: Jackson Lee/GC Images

Which was sadly true – Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rare neurological disease that affects motor neurons, which control voluntary muscle movement. Currently, there is no cure for the disease.

Randall’s family announced his death in a statement to People magazine on Monday.

“It is with great sadness that we share that on Aug. 5, Bryan Randall passed away peacefully after a three-year battle with ALS,” it read.

“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.

Bullock said last year she planned to take time out from her career to be with her family. Picture: Monica Schipper/Getty

“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.”

It was signed: “His Loving Family”.

Bullock – usually tight-lipped about her private life – also made a telling admission in an interview last year, revealing she intended to take a years-long career pause to spend more time with her family.

The pair first met when Randall was hired to photograph Bullock’s son Louis’ birthday in 2015.

“I found the love of my life,” Bullock said of Randall in a December 2021 episode of online chat show Red Table Talk.

“We share two beautiful children — three children, his older daughter. It’s the best thing ever.”