Charlie’s Angels star Farrah Fawcett’s ‘electric’ relationship with Ryan O’Neal – and secret hospital engagement

Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal were once one of Hollywood’s most famous couples, and were in an on-off relationship for 30 years.

From their unlikely introduction by Farrah’s then-husband to the relatable impact that parenting had on their relationship, discover the history of their passionate romance, and their secret hospital engagement in the actress’s final hours. 

A controversial start to their relationship

Ryan and Farrah first met in 1979, when they were introduced by the iconic actress’s then-husband, Lee Majors. The actor had asked Ryan to check in on his wife while he was away filming, but the pair embarked on a passionate affair. “I was so overwhelmed by this mental and physical attraction for him that I didn’t think about anything except what was happening right there,” Farrah later told LIFE Magazine.

Passionate romance

Ryan was equally infatuated with Farrah and said in an interview with the New York Daily News: “I lost interest in nearly everything but this woman. For the first time in my life, something took precedence over myself.”

Reflecting on their romance in 2019, Farrah’s close friend Sylvia Dorsey described them as “electric.” She told People: “Ryan was the love of her life. I don’t think she was happy without him. They fought and loved with passion. It was never boring. They were electric together.”

However, despite their love for one another, they were open that they didn’t feel marriage was for them. In 1989, Farrah told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “Lots of couples are married but unfaithful. We are not married and we are totally faithful.”

However, it appears that Ryan was more keen on the idea than the Charlie’s Angels actress. He admitted to 20/20 in 2009: “I used to ask her to marry me all the time. But… it just got to be a joke, you know. We just joked about it.”

Parenting and drifting apart

The couple became parents when they welcomed their son Redmond in 1985. Parenting had a big impact on their relationship, as Ryan revealed in his 2012 book, Both of Us: My Life With Farrah, where he disclosed that he and Farrah slept in separate beds after Redmond developed a preference for co-sleeping with them as a child.

Ryan wrote that their son had “strong legs like his mother” and he would “burrow into the bed, decide he didn’t have enough room, and then start pushing with all his might, until I had no other choice but to sleep on the floor or in the other room.”

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Despite Redmond eventually outgrowing the sleeping arrangements, his parents had got so used to their separate beds that they never reunited, something which Ryan said he regretted. “Farrah and I had grown used to our privacy and it stuck, and even when we travelled after that, we’d often get adjoining rooms,” the actor continued. “I always thought of our arrangement as terribly mature of us. Now I wish I could have back every one of those nights we slept in separate beds.”

Volatile relationship

In the memoir, Ryan also looked back on his tumultuous relationship with Farrah. The couple were open about the fact they often argued, and the Love Story star wrote: “There is this thin, impenetrable veil between us. We’re professional and considerate to each other on the set; cool, almost aloof at home. She accuses me of being bored and angry. Maybe she’s right. Sometimes our love just doesn’t make up the differences.”

A 1997 split and later reconciliation

Despite their complex relationship, the pair were together for two decades until Farrah caught Ryan being unfaithful. Reflecting on the breakdown of their relationship, Ryan said: “I believe Farrah was going through some kind of change. I didn’t have a change of life; I was always a jerk. But they’re hard work, these divas; I was sick of it, and I was unappreciated. I just don’t think she liked me very much. So I excused myself.”

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Cancer was ultimately what brought the pair back together. When Ryan was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2001, Farrah called him and said: “You can’t die. We’ll fight this together, we’ll beat this.”

Together to the end

While Ryan made a full recovery, Farrah was later diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006. The pair stayed together throughout both of their illnesses, and Ryan revealed that shortly before Farrah’s death in 2009, he proposed one last time – and this time she said yes. Ryan told CBS This Morning in 2012: “She said, ‘Okay, let’s get married.’ But by then, she was so weak that he was only able to give her the last rites.”

Ryan’s everlasting love for Farrah

Ryan died aged 82 in December 2023. His everlasting love for his former partner remained evident long after her death, with the star previously sharing a photo of her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and calling her his “forever Valentine”.