Suzanna Somers, best known for her roles on Three’s Company and Step by Step, has died.
via Page Six:
Suzanne Somers has lost her 50-year battle with cancer, just one day before her 77th birthday, Page Six can sadly confirm.
The actress died early Sunday morning, the star’s longtime publicist, R. Couri Hay, told us.
“Suzanne Somers passed away peacefully at home in the early morning hours of October 15th. She survived an aggressive form of breast cancer for over 23 years,” he said.
“Suzanne was surrounded by her loving husband Alan, her son Bruce, and her immediate family.”
Hay noted that Somers’ family had planned to gather on what would have been her 77th birthday Monday.
“Instead, they will celebrate her extraordinary life, and want to thank her millions of fans and followers who loved her dearly. A private family burial will take place this week, with a memorial to follow next month,” he concluded.
A friends of the “Three’s Company” star told Page Six she passed away beside her husband, Alan Hamel.
“She died in her new ‘all green home’ in Palm Springs, in her sleep with her loving husband by her side,” they said.
Another source told us that Hamel had given his wife of 46 years an early birthday present shortly before she passed.
“[It was a] handwritten love poem wrapped in her favorite pink peonies,” they revealed.
The tragic news comes less than three months after Hamel told Page Six that the TV icon’s breast cancer had returned.
The “Step by Step” star was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time in her 50s after battling skin cancer in her 30s and overcoming “two hyperplasia” in her 20s, Hamel explained.
“I have been living with cancer since my 20s. And every time that little f—ker pops up, I continue to bat it back,” Somers shared with Entertainment Tonight in July.
“I do my best not to let this insidious disease control me,” she added.
“It’s a recurrence of my breast cancer. Like any cancer patient, when you get that dreaded, ‘It’s back’ you get a pit in your stomach. Then I put on my battle gear and go to war. This is familiar battleground for me and I’m very tough.”
RIP.
