Farrah Fawcett Battling Cancer
Original Charlie’s Angel and 1970s bombshell Farrah Fawcett has confirmed that she is battling intestinal cancer.
The 59-year-old actress recently underwent surgery to remove a tumor found in her lower intestine and is expected to have more radiation treatment and complete a course of chemotherapy.
“Throughout the journey of my life, I have maintained a strong faith in the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity,” Fawcett said in a statement Friday. “I deeply believe in oneís own positive will to overcome even the most daunting challenges.
“I am resolutely strong and I am determined to bite the bullet and fight the fight while going through the next six weeks of cutting edge, state of the art treatment. I should be able to return to my life as it was before at the end of my treatment.
“I am so grateful for the overwhelming outpouring of concern, love, prayers and compassion from all over the world. You are all a source of enduring strength.”
A tanned, glamorous Fawcett made a surprise appearance at the Emmy Awards in August alongside former partners in crime-fighting Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson to pay tribute to Charlie’s Angels producer Aaron Spelling, who passed away in June.
“I wish her the best and it’s just shocking. I’m overwhelmed by the news, I had no idea,” Tori Spelling told E! News.
“I’ve grown up with her–she’s been a good friend. We’ve been costars, we’ve been neighbors, we’ve been friends, she’s been like a mother to me at times. She’s an amazing woman.”
It was shortly after the Emmy appearance that Fawcett was diagnosed with the disease.
Strangely enough, both Smith and Jackson have faced down cancer, as well. Smith was treated for breast cancer in 2002, and Jackson battled two occurrences of breast cancer in the late 1980s. Additionally, Fawcett’s sister succumbed to lung cancer, prompting the former pinup to do fund-raising appearances for the American Cancer society.
Meanwhile, Fawcett’s longtime off-on beau Ryan O’Neal fought his own bout with leukemia in 2001 and is reportedly in remission.
He and Fawcett, who split in 1997 after 15 years together, have apparently reconnected in recent weeks. The couple were spotted earlier this month working out together at an L.A.-area gym.
“After Farrah got the diagnosis…she was devastated,” an unnamed friend is quoted in the National Enquirer, which first reported the cancer diagnosis. “Everyone in the family cried for days. Then she snapped out of it and told Ryan, ‘I’m going to beat this!'”
Fawcett, whose blonde feathered waves were “the Rachel” of the ’70s, starred on Charlie’s Angels–and many teenage boys’ walls–from 1976 to 1980. She scored an Emmy nomination in 1984 for the acclaimed TV movie The Burning Bed, in which she played a battered wife who sets her husband on fire in his sleep.
More recently she guest-starred on Ally McBeal, Spin City and the CBS legal drama The Guardian, and showed up alongside Ja Rule and Tim Meadows in the film The Cookout. Last year she offered herself up to the reality TV gods, starring in Chasing Farrah on TV Land and, shortly before the Emmys, took a turn poking good-natured vulgar fun at William Shatner during Comedy Central’s televised roast of the Star Trek star.
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