Will Farrah Fawcett Live to See Her Cancer Documentary?

May 8, 2009 -- Farrah Fawcett's documentary about her cancer battle is set to air next week but those close to her fear that she may die before its premiere.

Ryan O'Neal, the longtime companion of the "Charlie's Angels" star, discussed her condition this week.

"It's a love story," O'Neal, 68, told People magazine. "I just don't know how to play this one. I won't know this world without her. Cancer is an insidious enemy.

"She stays in bed now," he continued. "The doctors see that she is comfortable. Farrah is on IVs, but some of that is for nourishment. The treatment has pretty much ended."

O'Neal said Fawcett, 62, has lost her trademark blond locks.

"I rub her head," he said. "It's kind of fun, actually, this great, tiny little head. How she carried all that hair I'll never know. She doesn't have a vanity about it."

O'Neal has kept Fawcett from the news of surrounding their son, Redmond O'Neal, who is awaiting transfer from prison to a rehab facility.

"Farrah doesn't know Redmond's in trouble," says O'Neal. "And Redmond is terrified for his mother. 'I don't want to be in jail and have some guard tell me she is gone,' he said to me. I told him, 'She's rebounding.' I lied to him. I lie to her. It's the best thing."

Details about Fawcett's deteriorating condition come a week before "Farrah's Story," a two-hour long documentary about her journey through illness, is scheduled to air May 15 on NBC. Fawcett shot some of the video with a hand-held camera; her friends, including Alana Stewart, also contributed.

Fawcett's doctor refuted reports last month that the actress' weight had plummetted to a mere 86 pounds.

"She is not 86 pounds," Dr. Lawrence Piro told ABC's "Good Morning America." "She is 101 pounds. She has challenges every day with the fight with cancer. As long as she is able to fight, she will keep fighting."

Piro said 101 pounds was a "reasonable weight" under the circumstances. He also said that her relationship with O'Neal is a source of strength.

"It has been an amazing relationship and Ryan has been an amazing companion and partner for her," Piro said. "He has been with her all the way through this, at her side, what ever she needs. It is something that all of us could only hope for if we had to walk in this kind of path, someone who has been so dedicated as Ryan has been to Farrah."

Piro added that Fawcett never complains about her condition.

"Never once have I heard her ask, 'Why her,' which is a very natural thing to ask. But she has never perceived herself of being in a position of life where she assumed she should be immune," he said. "She has courage and she has strength. She can do what so many people aspire to do and what the journey with cancer teaches you is the ability to look in the face of fear and to not shutter."

Son Cites Fawcett's Weight at Trial

Concern about Fawcett's condition reached new levels when her son, Redmond O'Neal, claimed she was 86 pounds in an April court hearing. A Los Angeles judge transferred two felony drug cases against the 24-year-old to a court that could send him to a stringent rehab program because O'Neal said Fawcett's cancer battle is motivating him to stay clean.

Redmond and Ryan O'Neal were arrested in September at the actor's Malibu home when deputies performing a probation sweep say they found methamphetamine at the house. Ryan O'Neal is in an 18-month drug diversion program after pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge.

The subject of her weight came little more than a week after she was released from an Los Angeles-area hospital where she was recovering from internal bleeding caused by her cancer.

Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006. Although doctors declared her free of cancer in February 2007, they learned a few months later that the cancer had returned.

The actress' alternative approach to her cancer treatment has been surrounded by controversy. After her initial diagnosis, Fawcett received traditional treatments in California.

According to People.com, Fawcett was "disheartened" by both the reoccurrence of the cancer and the treatment she was receiving in the United States, so she traveled to Germany's University Clinic in Frankfurt in search of an alternative course of treatment.

An employee at the UCLA Medical Center was disciplined last year for accessing Fawcett's medical records, a few weeks after the hospital announced that several employees had been fired for snooping in pop singer Britney Spears' records.

Fawcett's attorney told The Associated Press that an employee at the hospital reviewed the actress' medical records without authorization and then details about her treatment appeared in the tabloid the National Enquirer.

Fawcett first stepped into the spotlight playing Jill Munroe in the TV series "Charlie's Angels" in the 1970s. The series became a smash hit and Fawcett quickly became an iconic pin-up model for millions of men.

She later went on to win one of three Emmy Award nominations for her role as a battered wife in the acclaimed television movie "The Burning Bed."

ABC News' Gerard Middleton and Lindsay Goldwert contributed to this report.