O’Neal writes to Fawcett

O’Neal writes to Fawcett

NEW YORK — Ryan O’Neal says even as Farrah Fawcett lay dying, she clung to life.

O’Neal tells NBC’s “Today” show that doctors said Fawcett had a couple of hours left, but she held on for a couple of days.

O’Neal says Fawcett “wouldn’t pass,” and “it was awful.”

He says Fawcett’s eyes were open for the last three weeks of her life. He thinks she was “holding on,” since she had so much left to do.

Finally, he says, Fawcett closed her eyes, and she was gone.

She died last month after a long battle with anal cancer.

O’Neal says he writes to Fawcett in his journal, fulfilling a promise he made to his longtime love. He said he’d “see her every day” after her death.”

Today’s birthdays

Actor Orson Bean (“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”) is 81. Game show host Alex Trebek is 69. Singer George Clinton is 68. Singer-actor Bobby Sherman is 66. Singer Don Henley is 62. Actor Danny Glover is 62. Actor Willem Dafoe is 54. Singer Keith Sweat is 48. Singer Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls is 46. Actor-comedian David Spade is 45. Actor John Leguizamo is 45. Actor Rhys Ifans (“Notting Hill”) is 42. Singer Rufus Wainwright is 36.