Michael J. Fox reflects on being an empty nester with wife Tracy Pollan: 'We're not heartbroken'

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'Family Ties' star Meredith Baxter talks working with Michael J. Fox

Meredith Baxter recalls working with Michael J. Fox on "Family Ties" and watching his star rise as the show went on. 

Michael J. Fox and his wife, Tracy Pollan, have achieved a new milestone as parents: becoming empty nesters.

The actor and his spouse of 35 years share four children: son Sam, 33, twin daughters Schuyler and Aquinnah, 27, and daughter Esme, 20.

"It’s an empty nest, but it’s not really an empty nest because they’re all back tonight," the "Back to the Future" star told ETOnline on Sunday. "But we all get together enough that we’re not heartbroken."

"[However], it is a new stage of life to be to have all the kids gone," the 61-year-old added.

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Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan are officially empty nesters after raising four children. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for The Michael J. Fox Foundation)

Pollan shared that while they're enjoying quality time together, one of their children always makes an appearance at home.

"It’s not as empty as you would think when you have four," the actress said. "There’s usually somebody home, so there’s like a little straggler, usually. But it’s fun. We enjoy the stragglers."

Previously, the retired star opened up about his friendship with River Phoenix. The fellow actor passed away on Oct. 31, 1993, at age 23 from a drug overdose outside the notorious Viper Room nightclub in Hollywood.

Phoenix was once a guest star on Fox’s series "Family Ties."

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Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan on the set of the television series "Family Ties." Fox and Pollan were married in 1988. (Universal Studios/Getty Images)

"It was just before or just after ‘Stand by Me,’ and he would do a scene and I could tell," Fox told People magazine for its November issue. "I was looking at this guy … I think Tracy was on the show in that episode. And I said, ‘Look at this kid working. This kid is taking this 10 ways from Sunday, and he is really coming at it.’ … I mean, kids don’t act like this. He really knew how to be an actor, but he was struggling on this one scene."

Fox said he gave the young teen a pep talk.

"So, I went up to him and I said, 'What's the problem?'" Fox recalled. "And he said, 'I feel like a d---.’ And I said, 'You feel like a d---? Why?' He said, 'I feel goofy, I feel like a d---.' And I said, 'Welcome to the business. That's it. That's the highest level of accomplishment you'll get is to feel like a d---.' It's stupid. It's a stupid thing to do for a living.'"

"We pretend we're other people for a living," Fox continued. "We use things that we're not really using, and we eat things that we're not really eating, and we stand in a place because the light's better there, and it's all goofy, but if you stick with it, you can find a way to tell a story that other people can't."

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Actor River Phoenix, a rising young film star who died in 1993 from a drug overdose, is shown circa 1988. (George Rose/Getty Images)

Fox said the late actor was "phenomenal" at the time, and it seemed like Phoenix never forgot Fox’s words of wisdom.

"I guess that’s why he was always so nice to me when he became a huge star," said Fox.