The “Charlie’s Angels” actress died in June 2009, three years after she was diagnosed with anal cancer.

Jaclyn Smith reveals why she skipped Farrah Fawcett’s funeral

The “Charlie’s Angels” actress died in June 2009, three years after she was diagnosed with anal cancer.

By Marina Watts

Marina Watts

Marina Watts is a news writer for with seven years experience covering entertainment, pop culture and celebrity news. Her previous work appears in PEOPLE, Bustle and Newsweek.

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September 10, 2026 11:50 a.m. ET

Jaclyn Smith at PaleyFest LA 2026; Farrah Fawcett. Credit:

Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty; John Shearer/WireImage

- Jaclyn Smith is opening up about why she skipped Farrah Fawcett’s funeral when she died in 2009.

- Two months after the *Charlie’s Angels* star passed, Smith’s mom died at 95.

- *I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie *is available for purchase wherever books are sold.

Jaclyn Smith is reflecting on why she skipped her *Charlie’s Angels* costar Farrah Fawcett’s funeral.

In Smith’s memoir, *I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie*, the actress reflects on her decades-long acting career and her relationships. That includes Fawcett, who died in 2009, three years after being diagnosed with anal cancer.

Smith’s mother had been sick at the same time that Fawcett’s health was declining. “Farrah was so depleted. She’d been so sick and weak, in and out of the hospital, losing her hair, nauseated. It made me sad to see her so diminished, but I was determined not to show it,” Smith writes.

“She didn’t want to dwell on her illness, and I made it a point to be positive. I did my best to hide how I truly felt. It was hard watching my dear friend struggle for her life.”

Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett on ‘Charlie’s Angels’.

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

“I was in Houston at my mother’s hospital bedside when I learned that Farrah had passed,” Smith recalls of the June 2009 news of Fawcett’s death. She was 62.

“Mom was okay at the time, and she insisted that I go to Farrah’s funeral. She asked her doctor to assure me it was fine for me to go, and he did.”

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Smith’s mother, in her 90s, had been in good health for many years but was slowly declining herself between a fall that broke her neck, having arthritis, and other ailments. Her doctors made her wear a neck brace, and Smith notes that it “slowed her down and robbed her of her usual energetic pace.”

However, when Smith landed in Los Angeles for Fawcett’s funeral, she boarded the next flight back home to Houston for an important reason.

“Once the flight landed, I checked my messages. I’d received a call from Mom’s doctor that she’d taken a turn for the worse. Immediately, I turned around and flew right back to Houston.”

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Upon returning to Houston, Smith found her mother on a respirator, which she remained on for months while staying in the ICU. Smith’s mother died months after Fawcett, in August 2009 at 95, which she called “the most traumatic experience of my life” and an “unfathomable loss.”

Smith writes that she couldn’t be sure she did the “right thing” by keeping her mother on the respirator. “It’s impossible to know. We were just trying to do our best for her, and so I went on praying while [my husband and a heart surgeon] Brad and the rest of her medical team continued to search for options.”

‘I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie’ by Jaclyn Smith.

Elsewhere in her memoir, Smith writes that she was grateful she got to be present with Fawcett in the final years of her life. “I always admired how she engaged with life as a free spirit. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t locked in by convention.”

Smith’s memoir, *I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie*, is available to purchase wherever books are sold.

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