The main actress from "The Notebook" now battles real-life Alzheimer's

On the 20th anniversary of the premiere of the cult classic "The Notebook," news emerged that the leading actress, Gena Rowlands, suffers from the same condition as her character in the film. The star's son confirmed the information.

"The Notebook" is one of the most-watched romantic films. The 2004 production tells the story of a man who visits a woman suffering from Alzheimer's and reads her a notebook—a record of the love story between a girl from a wealthy family and a poor lumber mill worker.

Gena Rowlands played the role of the ill woman. The director of "The Notebook," who is also the actress's son, Nick Cassavetes, revealed in a recent interview that his mother truly suffers from Alzheimer's.

"II got my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer's and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the last five years, she's had Alzheimer's. She's in full dementia. And it's so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it's on us," he said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

Interestingly, Rowlands' mother also suffered from this disease.

"'This last one — The Notebook, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks — was particularly hard because I play a character who has Alzheimer's," she told the publication. "I went through that with my mother, and if Nick hadn't directed the film, I don't think I would have gone for it — it's just too hard. It was a tough but wonderful movie," she said in 2004.

The actress was nominated for an Oscar for her roles in the films "A Woman Under the Influence" and "Gloria." She frequently collaborated with her husband, screenwriter and director John Cassavetes. She was last seen in the 2014 film "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks." Rowlands is 94 years old.