14 DAY TRIAL // With just a day to go until NBC airs the two-hour special documenting Farrah Fawcett’s long battle with cancer, and in a context in which reports from her camp are anything but optimistic, the first bits from it have been made public. NBC sat down with Ryan O’Neal for a one-on-one interview before the big premiere, and his words speak of a “rock,” a wonderfully strong woman who will not give up the fight, even now that she’s so close to the end, Monsters and Critics informs.
In the footage just made available, the past couple of years of Farrah’s life are included with both highs and lows, in what has been described by the network as a brutally honest take on the battle with cancer. The former screen siren, always the poster girl for a healthy and balanced lifestyle is seen even on the hospital bed vomiting, at one point when her treatment seemed to pay off. None of this could put her off shooting the documentary, O’Neal explains in the interview, since she truly believed she actually stood a chance against the “insidious” cancer.
Farrah’s longtime on-and-off partner also explains how the star made the decision to start documenting her story. Initially, he says, she just taped the doctors she was seeing so as to make sure she wouldn’t forget what she was being told. Later on, she thought others could benefit from her story as well, so she continued with the practice either to show them that there was still a chance (in case she managed to beat cancer), or that they should never lose hope (granted she wouldn’t win the battle).
In the same NBC interview, Ryan also reveals that, contrary to what reports in the media have it, Farrah doesn’t know her legally troubled, druggie son is back in prison. “I don’t think his mother is going to be there for him when he gets out. Her doctor wrote to the judge and said, ‘If he doesn’t get a chance to see her now he may not get a chance to see her.’ And the judge was kind and allowed him a three-hour visit.” Ryan says of Redmond’s visit to his mother’s bedside.
The reunion was, of course, highly emotional, but it should also serve as a lesson for Redmond, who must start living his life in a way that would make his mother proud, the actor says. “He just wanted to see her, wanted to hold her, wanted to apologize – apologize, yeah, he is so full of shame for his mistakes. He can’t make heads or Tails of who he is or what he’s doing here. Heroin helped him – I guess, it’s a horrible thing – not to think about it. And he couldn’t shake it. And so it’s going to get shaken for him. He has a long ride ahead of him before they let him free and I don’t think his mother is going to be there for him when he gets out.” Ryan explains.
The full documentary, along with the O’Neal interview will air on NBC on Friday, May 15, from 9-11 p.m. ET. See below the two segments made available by the network.
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