Barry King/Getty ImagesFarrah Fawcett may be gearing up to show her strength in an NBC special, but Ryan O'Neal is breaking down about his longtime partner's battle with cancer.
"It's a love story," he tells People magazine. "I just don't know how to play this one. I won't know this world without her. Cancer is an insidious enemy."
The actor admits his angel has lost her trademark tresses and her treatment has neared its end.
"She stays in bed now," he says. "The doctors see that she is comfortable. Farrah is on IVs, but some of that is for nourishment. The treatment has pretty much ended."
Those facts may have accounted for son Redmond O'Neal's recent temporary release from prison to see his mother. Despite his visit in a jumpsuit and handcuffs, his struggling mother has been kept in the dark about his latest drug and legal troubles.
"Farrah doesn't know Redmond's in trouble, and Redmond is terrified for his mother. 'I don't want to be in jail and have some guard tell me she is gone,' he said to me. I told him, 'She's rebounding.' I lied to him. I lie to her. It's the best thing," says the elder O'Neal.
The May 15 television special, Farrah's Story, began when the Charlie's Angels star took a handheld camera to the devastating doctor's appointment during which she found out her cancer had returned, friend and producer Alana Stewart tells People.
The two-hour documentary follows the star through personal moments, highs and lows, and several trips to Germany for treatments not available in the United States.
"At about the halfway point in our trips the news started to get darker and darker and darker," O'Neal says. "The hope started to fade. But not for Farrah. She continued fighting. There was always a courage there, and a quiet dignity. Farrah never changed. I fell in love with her all over again because of how she handled this."
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