Dr. Oz Discusses Big Ang Raiola’s Final Interview

Last Tuesday, The Dr. Oz Show interviewed Mob Wives star Angela “Big Ang” Raiola about her stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Big Ang smiled and cried, and two days later, she passed away at the age of 55. The interview was taped on Jan. 29th and Dr. Mehmet Oz recalls it as “raw” and “authentic,” not knowing at the time that it would be Raiola’s final interview.

“She came on [the show] to get people to appreciate that this dumb cigarette addiction she picked up as a young woman… She wanted people to see the anguish in her face as she was clear about the fact that cigarettes killed her,”  Dr. Oz told People.

Raiola was a lifelong smoker, diagnosed with throat cancer late last March. She stopped smoking as soon as she found out. Her surgeries were successful and she was declared healthy in October. But then, stage 4 cancer was found in her other lung and her brain.

“She was scared,” said Dr. Oz, “Which is always a sign that people know more about their bodies than any test will tell you.”

The interview initially engendered a lot of buzz because it was there that she announced that she was leaving her husband, Neil Murphy. He tweeted after her death:

I will always love you forever please watch over the grandkids I know you will ? pic.twitter.com/HU99EHM4nf

— Neil Murphy (@MrBigAngVH1) February 18, 2016

Dr. Oz emphasized Big Ang’s reason for coming on to the show.

“The chance of stopping cigarettes is less than 10 percent on your own, but you can double that with medical support: medications or therapy,” said Oz. “Within hours of stopping cigarettes, your blood pressure drops, your lung function improves, and you see dramatic reductions in other risks. It takes years for other risks to go away, but you see benefits really quickly.”