Actor Ryan O'Neal Reveals Stage 2 Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

Ryan O’Neal, 70, who starred in such films as Love Story, Paper Moon, and has a current recurring role on FOX’s Bones with David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel, spoke out about his recent diagnosis with Stage 2 prostate cancer.

O’Neal, who is also known for his ongoing romance with acting icon Farrah Fawcett, who lost her own battle with cancer in the summer of 2009 at the age of 62, revealed that he was optimistic about his prognosis, calling the cancer “contained” on ABC’s Nightline and declaring that he was determined to fight it. It won’t be the first time O’Neal has overcome a cancer diagnosis. He beat myelogenous leukemia in the late ’90s, according to MSNBC.

“I have it under control,” he assured. “I wasn’t prepared to it. I wasn’t ready for it. But you never are.” Initially O’Neal’s first thoughts went to the difficult question, “Why me?” before he “just sort of chalked it up to — you know — to bad luck.”

O’Neal’s gained a lot of his perspective from Fawcett, whom he was with at the time of her death. “Farrah taught me that — about fighting it, fight a good fight.” Next, O’Neal will begin treatment for his cancer, which is only locally advanced. The procedure involved is called cryopathy, wherein doctors freeze infected tissue to stop the spread of the disease. O’Neal’s memoir about his time with Fawcett, Both of Us: My Life With Farrah, comes out on May 1.

O’Neal recently had a feud with OWN producer Oprah Winfrey over a reality show he filmed with daughter Tatum O’Neal, from whom he was famously estranged for over 25 years. The series, called Ryan and Tatum: The O’Neals, is considered a flop, and O’Neal reveals that it far from helped his strained relationship with his daughter. “We only reconciled on the show,” he told TV Guide Magazine, reports The Huffington Post. “Not in life. In fact, we’re further apart now than we were when we started the show. So thanks, Oprah, for all your help.”