Ryan O'Neal Confessed Under Oath to Cheating on Farrah Fawcett with Another Actress in 1997
Late Academy Award-nominated actor Ryan O'Neal admitted to having an affair while dating Farrah Fawcett in 1997 during a court-ordered deposition in a lawsuit filed by the University of Texas.
He revealed that his ex-lover caught him in bed with another woman at his Malibu mansion. This revelation came as part of a legal battle over a one-of-a-kind Andy Warhol painting of Fawcett, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Ryan O'Neal admitted to cheating on Farrah Fawcett.
The deposition, which took place in 2012, saw O'Neal questioned about his affair with actress Leslie Stefanson in 1997. He confirmed that he and Fawcett had a falling out that year and that she had indeed found him in bed with another woman at their home in Malibu.
The details of O'Neal's tumultuous relationship with Fawcett are documented in hundreds of pages of deposition transcripts and court papers.
The lawsuit filed by the University of Texas aims to establish that Fawcett, not O'Neal, took ownership of the Warhol painting after the incident.
Ryan O'Neal died at age 82.
The university's lawyers questioned O'Neal about what happened to the painting after Fawcett caught him cheating. O'Neal explained that he gave it to Fawcett because there was a new woman in his life, and the painting made her uncomfortable. He said, "I took it to Farrah and said, ‘Keep this for me. I’ll be back.’”
According to O'Neal, Fawcett didn't want the painting back because she enjoyed making his new girlfriend uncomfortable.
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O'Neal's son Griffin said he was not invited to his father's funeral service.
The University of Texas alleged that O'Neal removed the painting from Fawcett's condominium shortly after she passed away in 2009.
It is not clear if O'Neal was aware at that point that he had been left out of Fawcett's will, which bequeathed $4.5 million to their son, Redmond.
O'Neal claimed that he couldn't bring himself to read Fawcett's will and instead learned about it from his personal manager. He said, "He (the manager) said the whole — her whole art collection was going to the University of Texas, which sort of jarred me. But I didn’t mind. If that’s what she wanted to do, that was fine, with the exception of the Warhol, which he knew was mine."
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As RadarOnline.com previously reported, O'Neal died at 82 on Friday, December 8.
The actor's son, Patrick O'Neal, shared a statement on Instagram announcing his father's passing. He wrote, "Ryan was a very generous man who has always been there to help his loved ones for decade upon decade. Those same people are heartbroken today and will be for a long time."
"My dad was 82, and lived a kick a-- life. I hope the first thing he brags about in Heaven is how he sparred 2 rounds with Joe Frazier in 1966, on national TV, with Muhammad Ali doing the commentary, and went toe to toe with Smokin’ Joe."