Gena Rowlands, star of 'The Notebook,' has Alzheimer's

Gena Rowlands, who most recently played the older Allie in the movie "The Notebook," has Alzheimer's Disease.

Her son Nick Cassavetes, who also directed the movie, confirmed the news with Entertainment Weekly saying the legendary Hollywood actress has had it for five years.

""She's in full dementia. And it's so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it's on us," he said.

Incidentally, Gena's character in the movie also had dementia.

"I 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," Cassavetes said.

Their family has a history of the disease. Rowlands' mother, Lady, also had it and it was the reason why Gena agreed to the part in the beloved movie.

"This last one — The Notebook, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks — was particularly hard because I play a character who has Alzheimer's, 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," she told O Magazine back in 2004. "It was a tough but wonderful movie."

Alzheimer's is a specific type of dementia, and has no known cure. "It is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that primarily affects memory and cognitive functions," explains the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine.

There are other types of dementia but according to Healthline but Alzheimer's is the most common type. "It gets worse with time and affects memory, language, and thought," it said.

Family history does play a role, and while TODAY reports the biggest factor is age, with symptoms appearing by age 65, Alzheimer's is not an expected part of aging.

— LA, GMA Integrated News