'Modern Family' star told he was dying 30 years after being hit by cement truck

Fox News

04-04-2025

Adam Devine continues to live with chronic pain after he was run over by a cement truck when he was 11.
On an episode of the "In Depth With Graham Bensinger" podcast, Devine, 41, recalled his terrifying childhood accident he believed was going to kill him.
For the past three years, the "Modern Family" actor said, he has been in constant pain, making life "a nightmare." He revealed having "spasms all over," and it "hurts to sit for too long, it hurts to stand for too long and it hurts to walk for too long."
According to Devine, doctors "don't really know" what's going on with him medically, but shared their own worse-case-scenario outcomes.
"They told me I was dying. Literally, within this last year, they told me that," he said.
"They told me I had this disease called stiff-person syndrome. And that's when your muscles get so tight that you then, you can no longer walk. You can no longer move, then your heart will stop beating because your heart is a muscle and it gets too tight to beat, and then you die.
"They told me I was dying. Literally, within this last year, they told me that."
"And, so, essentially, the average life expectancy is six years for someone that has that. And they told me that I have that literally a month before my son Beau was born," Devine added, referring to his 1-year-old son with actress Chloe Bridges.
"And, so, I'm like, 'Oh great, now I'm gonna die.'
"And then six months go by ... and it wasn't getting much better, and I could only walk a few blocks before I'd get so tight that I couldn't really move anymore. And they're like, 'We actually do think you have it. Go see the guy that coined the phrase stiff-person syndrome. He's the expert in the field.' And so I went and saw him.
"And he's like, 'You don't have it. You do not have it.' He's like, 'This is from your accident, from when you were a child. The spasms are a little unexplainable, but it could just be you got so tight that your body doesn't know what to do with it. So, you're misfiring a little bit,'" Devine recalled.
The "Pitch Perfect" star had stem cell treatment and is feeling "the best" he's felt in the past three years.
In 2016, Devine shared details about getting run over by a cement truck when he was 11.
"We were gonna go get candy," Devine told Entertainment Weekly. "And also rip pages out of Penthouse. That was a real agenda."
Once Devine and his friends left the store, there was a miscommunication that led to the accident.
"One buddy was across the street. He yelled, 'Come on!' as in, 'I'm excited to go look at boobs!' And I heard, 'Come on!' as in 'The coast is clear!'" Devine told the outlet.
He walked his bike into the street and was struck by the vehicle.
"They say the reason I lived was the bike took the hit first. I still slid 500 feet. Picked me up under the first two wheels and then spit me out," he said.
Over the next two years, Devine underwent 25 surgeries and had limited mobility.
During his interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor recalled the accident in a positive light.
"I'm glad that it happened to me. It really gave me a driving force," he said.
Devine was in a wheelchair during his recovery and began to write down jokes and sketches. He would even call into his local radio station and perform a Chris Farley impression.
"A lot of comics say that something traumatic happened in their lives that sort of pushes them in this direction.
"Some of their dads burned them with cigarettes and stuff. My dad just pushed me in a wheelchair, you know? It could be much worse. I just had a cement truck," Devine said.