HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — On the eve of her NBC special, Farrah Fawcett is offering insight into her 2½-year-long battle with cancer.
The 62-year-old actress granted an interview last August to the Los Angeles Times, with the intention of running the piece prior to her two-hour documentary, "Farrah's Story," which airs Friday.
"It's much easier to go through something and deal with it without being under a microscope," Fawcett said of the challenge of being a public figure dealing with a disease. "It was stressful. I was terrified of getting the chemo. It's not pleasant. And the radiation is not pleasant."
"It becomes your life," she continued. "People call, 'How are you?' 'How do you feel?' 'We're praying for you.' 'Do you still have your hair?' 'What do you feel like?' When every single call is that kind of call...it's all you talk about. It's all-consuming. Then, your quality of life is never the same."
Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in September 2006 and she has fought hard to be a positive role model for fellow cancer patients. The "Charlie's Angels" icon once launched a sting operation at the UCLA Medical Center to catch employees who were leaking information about her condition and painting a grim picture to the outside world. During her interview with the Times, she points out a particular headline by the National Enquirer in December 2006 that read: "Farrah Begs: 'Let Me Die.' "
"God, I would never say something like that," she explained. "To think that people who did look up to me and felt positive because I was going through it too and yet I was strong … it just negated all that."
Fawcett explained that she's a private person by nature, which has made her health struggle all the more difficult as she deals with the paparazzi following her every move.
"I'm a private person," she said. "I'm shy about people knowing things. And I'm really shy about my medical [care]. It would be good if I could just go and heal and then when I decided to go out, it would be OK."
Fawcett said she hopes some good can come from her illness, particularly in the areas of protecting patient confidentiality and promoting alternative treatments for cancer.
"I'm holding onto the hope that there is some reason that I got cancer and there is something – that may not be very clear to me right now – but that I will do," she said.
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