Laura Dern, 59, Opens Up About the Death of Her Mother, Diane Ladd

Laura Dern hasn’t had an easy time of it in the past year or so. Early in 2025, she lost her longtime collaborator and friend, the director David Lynch, at 78. Then came an even more profound blow: the death of her beloved mother, the actor Diane Ladd, who died in November at age 89 after battling idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a progressive disease that causes permanent scarring in the lungs.

Ladd had been contending with her diagnosis for more than seven years — a remarkably long stretch, considering that her initial prognosis in 2018 was dire: Ladd’s lungs were so compromised, doctors said, she might have only a few more months to live.

Dern stayed by her mom’s side as her care partner, working together to manage the disease and rejoicing when the prognosis proved wildly inaccurate. She accompanied Ladd on long, invigorating walks, during which they discussed acting, love, life — everything — as chronicled in their 2023 book Honey, Baby, Mine.

We spoke with Dern recently in New York City, where the actor, statuesque and lovely in a sky blue pantsuit, was in the midst of a whirlwind of interviews to spread the word about the disease through an educational campaign called Beyond the Scars — a reference to IPF’s physical and emotional scars.

You’re working to raise awareness of the red flags for IPF to allow for earlier diagnosis. What were your mom’s earliest symptoms?

She was having shortness of breath and a dry cough — a lot of symptoms, and was misdiagnosed for a couple of years, at least. She was having esophageal issues, and they said it was acid reflux. She had a couple of rounds of pretty severe pneumonia and was in and out of the hospital until finally she was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Neither of us had heard of it, so we didn’t know what to look out for.

But it sounds like she was persistent in seeking answers.

She kept saying to doctors, I have a feeling something’s going on with my lungs, and they said, “But were you ever a smoker?” She said, “No.” They said, “Well, it’s not lung disease.” So that [misunderstanding] already is one huge challenge, because lung disease has been very common in women who are nonsmokers. In mom’s case, there’s no known cause, but doctors are suggesting connections with environmental factors and genetic factors.

What was it like to receive the diagnosis?

It was devastating. We were traumatized. IPF causes permanent scarring, and it’s irreversible. It’s already hard enough to hear that news, but in 2018, they told me, with my mom sitting there, “Your mom has three to six months to live, be gentle with her. There’s really nothing you can do with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.” I mean, it was very much like, “Bye, good luck.”