Fawcett and O’Neal to wed

The iconic TV actress Farrah Fawcett, whose red bathing suit poster adorned teenage boys' bedroom walls across the world in the late 1970s, is back in hospital, fighting for her life, according to her long-time partner Ryan O'Neal. And the couple who first got together in 1982 have finally agreed to get married.

O'Neal announced his intention to marry Fawcett during an interview with the American chat show host Barbara Walters, due to be broadcast this week.

"I used to ask her to marry me all the time," he told Walters. "But it just got to be a joke, you know."

O'Neal, 68, made his name in the 1970s films Love Story, What's Up, Doc? and Barry Lyndon. He met Fawcett when she had already finished playing her most famous role in Charlie's Angels, and had recently left her husband Lee Majors, the actor who played The Six Million Dollar Man.

Fawcett was first diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2006. She travelled to Germany for experimental treatment, but the cancer ended up spreading to her liver. When her chemotherapy sessions ended last month, she returned home to the Malibu home she shares with O'Neal.