Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal unmasked by Vanity

Their story could have beeen right out of Hollywood — Global sex-symbol meets Hollywood hunk, and the two are consumed by unbreakable love. But the 30-year link between Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal was not always as sweet as it seemed; Along the way there were narcotics, frequent affairs and family feuds they made very sure were kept just to themselves:

In a revealing new article for this month’s Vanity Fair, Leslie Bennetts, who shared Ryan’s tormented vigil as cancer finally robbed him of his one, life-long love paints an unvarnished portrait of the world-famous pair.

To the press, Farrah Fawcett was a concourse of clichés — Blonde, perfect figure and no stains on her life. But Bennetts says that’s not the truth: After interviewing several close friends and most of her family, he describes a star for whom real life was a total reversal of her public face, “I’m always more comfortable when I have on hardly any make-up, my hair is brown and I’m unattractive,” she’s quoted as saying at one point.

Farrah achieved global fame in 1976 through her role in the Aaron Spelling soapy show, ‘Charlie’s Angels.’ But her later years were more focused on art. The modest Texan spent hours sculpting the nude female form with such care and devotion, her friends often wondered if it was her way of dealing with the media’s focus on her own slender shape.

But her one truest love was always O’Neal. When the two met in 1976, Ryan – then aged 35 – already had quite a rep as a playboy. And that often caused friction: They split several times, and ended ‘forever’ in 1998. But they reconnected in 2001 when Ryan was diagnosed with leukemia; “We pulled apart, but we never came loose,” O’Neal tells the author.

Ryan is also quite candid about the cause of these storms, “I believe Farrah was going through some kind of life change,” he says. “I didn’t – I was always a jerk. But they’re hard work, these divas. So I excused myself. And I was lucky enough to meet a young girl. She was more a daughter than a lover, and my own daughter had moved out, so here was a replacement.”

This ‘recycled sibling’ – Leslie Stefanson, an upcoming actress from Fargo, ND, who, at 38, was less than half Ryan’s age — was even caught in bed with the actor at his Malibu home…by Farrah. “It was terrible,” Ryan recalls. “I didn’t expect to see Farrah there at that time.”

O’Neal also owns up to being, ‘a hopeless father,’ and recalls one telling story from Farrah’s own funeral, “I had just put the casket in the hearse and was watching it drive away when a beautiful blond came up and embraced me,” Ryan told Bennetts. “I said, ‘Do you have a drink on you?’ and she replied, ‘Daddy, it’s me — Tatum! ‘ I was trying to be funny with a strange woman…and it’s my daughter. It’s so sick.”

The whole, sordid story is recounted by Bennetts in Vanity’s September issue, which comes out in ten days.