In October of 2002, former wild child, Tatum O’Neal told “Access Hollywood” that her relationship with Farrah Fawcett was not a model one, even when her father Ryan O’Neal was involved with the star.
“I never talked to Farrah, even when she was my step mom,” Tatum said at the time.
The “Rescue Me” star is now singing a different tune about Farrah as “Access” found out in an exclusive interview. Among the things we discussed? Tatum’s recent move: reaching out to the ’70s icon, currently suffering from a returned bout of cancer.
“You don’t want anyone to be sick,” O’Neal told Access. “You certainly don’t want your brother’s mother to be sick with cancer.”
“She and I had been estranged for a while,” Tatum continued, “a long time — 10 years or so — and when I heard that she was sick I made a trip. I was working in San Diego at the time and I made a trip out to L.A., drove my car and I visited her.”
When “Access Hollywood’s” Maria Menounos pointed out how it took a great deal of courage for the O’Neal to reach out to Farah, Tatum said it wasn’t as hard as one might have thought.
“Well she’s a pretty great lady and she’s, you know, she is Farrah, and I’ve known her a long time, so it wasn’t that difficult,” she said.
Tatum’s truce with Farrah however has unearthed emotion.
“She was then, don’t,” Tatum says pausing to fight back tears. “She was then doing better but now she’s had this relapse with the cancer and she’s in Europe right now so I don’t know exactly how she’s doing.”
Back from Europe and looking strong, Farrah was at Ryan O’Neal’s Malibu beach house yesterday.
“We just all pray for her, “Tatum said.
For Part 2 of our exclusive with O’Neal, tune into “Access Hollywood” tomorrow or visit AccessHollywood.com.