How Ryan O’Neal Embraced Life While Having Leukemia and Then Prostate Cancer in the Past 20 Years

In a recent interview before his death, Ryan O’Neal shared his positive outlook on life after years of living with chronic illness.

In 2021, Paper moon actor — who died Dec. 8 at age 82 — spoke with PEOPLE about embracing life after being diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia in 2001 and prostate cancer in 2012.

“I’m proud of them, I survived them,” O’Neal said of his illnesses at the time. “I thought I was gone. And suddenly I’m back. I’m not the same man I was, but I’m back.”

O’Neal was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 60, just after the turn of the century. He was undergoing treatment for the disease, his representative confirmed to ABC at the time.

“He can be cured and he is doing very well,” they told the news outlet.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the disease is an “uncommon type of bone marrow cancer” and is treated with targeted therapy, bone marrow transplants and chemotherapy.

O’Neal embraced life even in his later years after chronic illnesses.

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Inside Ryan O’Neal and Farrah Fawcett’s love story: ‘I loved her with all my heart’

He went into remission from leukemia, but said in 2012 that he was diagnosed with cancer a second time.

“I was recently diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer,” the actor said in a statement at the time. “While I was shocked and stunned by the news, I am fortunate that it was caught early and according to my outstanding team of doctors, the prognosis is positive for a full recovery.”

The following year, in 2013, O’Neal spoke about his reaction to his second cancer diagnosis and his feelings about being in remission again.

“It shook me. It shook me. It shook my family,” he said, according to the Prostate Cancer Research Institute, while sitting with Dr. Duke Bahn, director of the Prostate Institute of America at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California, who explained that the actor underwent focal cryotherapy for cancer treatment.

“I’m cancer free and I plan to stay that way,” O’Neal continued. “As long as I’m getting checkups about every three months and they’re monitoring my progress, I feel like the sky’s the limit.”

O’Neal, who spoke to PEOPLE in the 50th anniversary year of his film Love storyhe also discussed his undying love for the late actress and his former partner, Farrah Fawcett, whom he reunited with after being diagnosed with leukemia, at which time Fawcett returned to his home in Malibu and the couple remained together until her death in 2009.

O’Neal was diagnosed with leukemia in 2001 and prostate cancer in 2012.

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“She was amazing. I miss her very much. 10 years later, I miss her so much. I miss her,” he told PEOPLE.

O’Neal and Fawcett were in an on-and-off relationship from 1979 to 1997 and had a son together, Redmond, born in 1985. The actress was supported years later by O’Neal after her diagnosis of anal cancer before she died aged 62 from diseases. “It’s a love story,” O’Neal told PEOPLE of their relationship in 2009. “I just don’t know how to play this story. I will not know this world without her.”

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O’Neal spoke of his love for the former Fawcett after her death in 2009.

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During his 2021 PEOPLE interview, O’Neal talked about the 1970 classic Love story, in which he starred opposite Ali Macgraw, and his recent experiences promoting the film’s 50th anniversary nationwide with his former co-star. He noted then that he is also focused on his health.

O’Neal told PEOPLE that he is “working on his health” and will “get back on the road” after that.

“I was just on the road with Ali sending love letters all over the country, in nine cities,” O’Neal said. “And she’s still amazing. Still amazing. And they asked me questions about… Are you romantically involved? And I said ‘no, she locks the door,'” the actor joked.

Ryan O’Neal reunites with daughter Tatum O’Neal and grandchildren after ‘years of pain’

Speaking about his legacy to PEOPLE in the same interview, O’Neal said he wasn’t sure what it would be. “Oh, I’ve been told so many stories about myself that I don’t even know what I left behind,” O’Neal said. “You know, it’s like coming out from under. I’m not aiming for an inheritance, you know?”

O’Neal’s death was announced by another son, sports journalist Patrick, on Friday.

“My father Ryan O’Neal has always been my hero,” he wrote on Instagram. – I looked up to him and he was always larger than life. The sports journalist added that his father “died peacefully”.

O’Neal died at the age of 82 on December 8.

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“I feel great sadness over my father’s death. He meant everything to me,” Tatum, 60, told PEOPLE on Friday. “I loved him very much and I know he loved me too. I will miss him forever and feel very lucky that we ended up on such good terms.”

O’Neal’s cause of death has yet to be released. He is survived by his children: Tatum and Griffin, 59, whom he shares with Joanna Moore; Patrick, 56, shared with Leigh Taylor-Young; and Redmond.

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