'If she'd never met us, would she still be alive?'

He was absolutely devastated when the love of his life passed away aged just 62 from cancer. But Ryan O'Neal has sensationally claimed that her death may have been caused by his family. The Love Story star said he believes that the disease could have been brought on by the stress and turmoil created by his family, especially his daughter Tatum. And he questioned whether she may still be alive today if she hadn't met him or his family.
Speaking to Piers Morgan on his chat show last night, he said: 'Nobody knows what causes cancer, do they really?. She didn't smoke and she didn't drink. She exercised every day and she believed in her good health. And then we came along - the four of us - and gradually she got weaker.'
O'Neal, 70, and Farrah, were together on-and-off for almost 30 years until her death in June 2009.
Farrah, who was best known for her role as Jill Munroe in 'Charlie's Angels', was first diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006. Four months later she was declared cancer-free, but the disease returned and eventually claimed her life.
O'Neal told Morgan that he could not rule out the possibility that she fell ill after being 'sucked in' by his family's troubles. 'What bothers me the most is that there was turmoil during my love affair with Farrah - a lot of it caused by my family, by my kids, all of them, particularly Tatum. I just think that if she had never met us, would she still be alive today?'
When Morgan asked him if he really believed that, O'Neal said: 'I think it's highly possible. I wasn't able to straighten out the mess that we were in and we sucked her in.'
O'Neal, who is best known for his Oscar-winning role in the 1970 film Love Story, said Tatum, now 47, took an instant dislike to Farrah. He said: 'I started to feel like I should keep them apart because Tatum was saying to her "Has he beaten you yet?" I realised that she was going to try to take it out her own way. The longer - the stronger - that Farrah and I got, the weaker Tatum and I got. I saw it and I didn't know what to do.'
He said the breakdown of his relationship with his daughter, which is now much better had left him ;absolutely' heartbroken. But he got emotional when Morgan showed him footage of an interview the journalist had done with Tatum just a few days earlier.
The father and daughter are currently starring in their own reality show, which follows them as they try to re-build their relationship.