O'Neal fears he played part in Fawcett's cancer

Ryan O'Neal has given a revealing interview about his late partner Farrah Fawcett, in which he admits he wishes he could have their time together again so he could treat her better.

He explained to Vanity Fair magazine: "I'd love to do it over. I would have been much kinder, more understanding, more mature. I'd lose some of the savagery. I don't know how she got cancer - maybe some of it was me."

Ryan and Farrah, who have 24-year-old son Redmond together, dated for 20 years but parted ways in 1998. They got back together in 2001 after Ryan discovered he had leukaemia.

Speaking about the split, Ryan said: "I believe Farrah was going through some kind of life change. I didn't have a change of life. I was always a jerk. But they're hard work, these divas. I was sick of it, and I was unappreciated.

"I just don't think she liked me very much. So I excused myself. We pulled apart, but we never popped loose."

Ryan – who has three other children, Tatum O'Neal and Griffin O'Neal with ex-wife Joanna Cook Moore and Patrick O'Neal with ex-wife Leigh Taylor-Young – has also made some shocking revelations about his private life.

He has admitted he flirted with Tatum at Farrah's funeral as he didn't recognise her and wishes he hadn't fathered some of his children.

He said: "I had just put the casket in the hearse and I was watching it drive away when a beautiful blonde woman comes up and embraces me. I said to her, 'You have a drink on you? You have a car?' She said, 'Daddy, it's me - Tatum!'

"I was just trying to be funny with a strange Swedish woman and it's my daughter. It's so sick.

"I don't think I was supposed to be a father. Just look around at my work - they're either in jail or they should be. A couple of them I would take back."

- BANG! SHOWBIZ