Alan Hamel spoke with Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie on the Today Show
Suzanne Somers' death on October 15, a day before her 77th birthday, rocked the entertainment world, and many of her closest friends and fans have shared tributes and kind words in dedication.
Her husband, Alan Hamel, 87, appeared on the Today Show on October 17 and spoke with anchors Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie about his final moments with the late actress.
He reflected on their final days together (they'd been together for 55 years and tied the knot in 1977), sharing: "I wouldn’t say I was surprised. She was heavy breathing at the very end and I gave her a pill to relax the breathing, but it didn't work."
Hamel continued: "And I was grateful that I was with her when she left us. And it was very peaceful and it was beautiful. And she was beautiful.
"And we had the whole family come and they've been here ever since. And we've been very upbeat about what's going on. There hasn't been a grim moment. Every time I feel it coming on, I leave the room so I can be alone. But that's life, I don't know what else to do."
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The Canadian entertainer also commented that they could feel her death coming weeks before it happened. "She was doing OK. Not great, but she was doing OK. And we had conversations. We faced reality like who knows what's going to happen down the road."
He also shared a heartbreaking confession that came from their conversations surrounding death and potentially leaving one of them alone, saying that they expected him to go first given he was older.
"My life is going to change," Hamel emotionally stated. "I don't care one way or another, and we had talked about this day coming, and we thought it was going to be me because I'm 10 years older.
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"If that happened she would be alone, which was a terrible conundrum, the idea of her being alone."
He gushed about the late star, who rose to fame as the star of from 1977-81. "She was an amazing, amazing woman. Aside from all her accomplishments, she was an amazing wife and an amazing mother, as well.
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"She's the one who pulled our family together. I didn't do it. She did it. She really knew what she was doing. So I will miss her."
In a statement shared with People on Sunday, her longtime publicist R. Couri Hay wrote: "Suzanne Somers passed away peacefully at home in the early morning hours of October 15th.
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"She survived an aggressive form of breast cancer for over 23 years. Suzanne was surrounded by her loving husband Alan, her son Bruce, and her immediate family."
Somers is survived by her husband Hamel, her three children Leslie, Stephen, and Bruce, and six grandchildren, including Camelia and Violet Somers.
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