Alan Hamel Reveals Suzanne Somers’ Last Loving Words and Reveals How He’s Found New Joy (EXCLUSIVE)
Plus, he opens up about his new relationship with Joanna Cassidy—and how she was ‘sent by Suzanne’
On October 15, 2023, Alan Hamel said goodbye to the love of his life, his wife Suzanne Somers. It was a loss Hamel says he will never recover from. From the second Alan saw Suzanne on the set of The Anniversary Game for ABC in 1969, which he hosted, and Suzanne was a prize model, Alan knew he had to meet her.
“I was so bad with pick-up and opening lines,” the 89-year-old tells Woman’s World, “and I honestly had no idea what to say. So when she turned around, I blurted out, ‘Can you get me coffee?’” From that moment on, the couple became inseparable and spent 55 years together before The Three’s Company star lost her longtime battle to breast cancer.
Alan reveals he never stops thinking about Suzanne, but he also knows he has to move forward. Since then, he has found new joy with actress Joanna Cassidy. In this exclusive interview, Alan talks about finding romance while keeping Suzanne’s legacy alive.
Woman’s World: It’s been almost two years since Suzanne’s passing. How are you doing?
Alan Hamel: I am doing okay. We were together for 55 years. We lived together for nine years before we got married. Before I met Suzanne, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get married again since I had been divorced previously.
WW: How would you describe Suzanne?
AH: Her brain was going 24 hours a day. When she got an idea for one of her 27 books she would dictate the outline, sit down somewhere and then write non-stop. She did seven of her books long hand and never got up from the screen after she got a computer because when she got a book in her head, she wanted to get it out as soon as possible. People thought she was like her famous character Chrissy Snow from Three’s Company, but she was so smart and even earned her Ph.D.
WW: Suzanne’s cancer was an on-going battle she never stopped fighting. How did that affect her and you?
AH: When she was in her 70’s she developed some other form of cancer and to be honest, she dealt with cancer her entire life. The first time she was diagnosed with cancer I was with her in the changing room at the doctor’s office. I will never forget when the doctor came in and said those three dreaded words, “You have cancer.” At that moment everything came to a halt and it was the only time, we barely spoke to each other. When we got home, we took a walk on the beach and both of us were thinking, overthinking and not saying a word. When we got the house Suzanne said to me, “Okay, I know how to handle this. Let’s not give it anymore attention because I am going to be okay.” She was right. Every form of cancer that came up she managed to beat until she couldn’t. She had a great attitude and had a lot of living to do.
WW: Did she have a bucket list?
Alan Hamel: She did everything she wanted to. She had a great career; she wrote 27 books and was a brilliant businesswoman. She did cruises, residences in Las Vegas, TV shows, movies and she created an organic line for hair and skin care. Keep in mind this was a woman who grew up with a father that was an alcoholic, which she wrote about in her book, Keeping Secrets, which also became a movie.
WW: Losing Suzanne must have been crushing and heartbreaking for you?
AH: It was torture. Suzanne had cancer her entire life. In her 20’s she has two hyperplasias on her uterus. In her 30s, she had a melanoma tumor removed from her back. When she was in 40’s she lost her uterus. In her 50’s she had breast cancer on her right breast, then she got cancer in her left breast, and it spread.
WW: Can you take me back to your last moments together?
AH: When the end was near, Suzanne and I had a lot of conversations. The last two nights I was with her, she was non-responsive. I was talking to her non-stop from 8 p.m. one evening to 5 a.m. the next morning, hoping she could hear me. Her blood pressure was normal, so I assumed she could hear me.
Then I decided to kiss her, and she kissed me back. At that moment, I knew she could hear everything I said. Then she woke up long enough to say a couple of things to me and one was, “I don’t want you to mope around. I want you to live your life because you have a great life ahead of you and I don’t want you to walk around all depressed.”
WW: Because Suzanne’s cancer came back and spread, were you prepared to lose her?
AH: No. In fact, I moped around for a year and a half after she passed.
WW: You had an amazing relationship and marriage…
Alan Hamel: We did. We would date each other once a week, sometimes twice a week. We liked to get dressed up, go to one of our favorite restaurants, order a nice bottle of wine, talk, laugh, look at each other lovingly and enjoy the fact we were genuinely deeply in love with one another. With Suzanne, we were way past the point of being in love because it was so much more. She also taught me so much.
WW: What did you learn from Suzanne?
AH: The first thing I learned from Suzanne was how to say, “I’m sorry,” and when she would accept it because she wanted it to be meaningful. She also taught me to not worry about the little things that made me crazy and get under my skin.
WW: Barry Manilow and Jane Seymour were close friends of Suzanne’s. Did you turn to them for support when Suzanne became ill?
AH: I had my family around me. For the first two and a half months, I was never alone. I either had my kids, my grandkids or I had both at the same time. They were either keeping me company or cooking for me. What kept me going was everyone was upbeat, and we would tell great stories about Suzanne. They called her Zanny. That was my support system. The rest came from the over 35,000 emails I received.
WW: How did you know you were ready to try and date again?
AH: I wanted to find someone I could connect with and talk to, where we can have good conversations. I have a lot of female friends, and I think it’s because I know a lot about women’s personal health because of all the work Suzanne did on the subject while she was alive. I called two of my female friends, who are married, by the way, and asked if they would have lunch with me so I could get comfortable with the idea of being with someone other than Suzanne.
WW: And you now found new love?
Alan Hamel: Yes. I have been with Joanna Cassidy, who is my sole date.
WW: You still speak so highly of Suzanne. Do you think she would approve of you dating Joanna Cassidy?
Alan Hamel: I think Suzanne would be really happy that I am spending my time with Joanna. Suzanne always liked her. She also respected her and I think she would compliment her for being a great actress. I also think I was sent a sign. Leeza Gibbons and her husband Steven are very close friends, and Leeza recently told me, Alan is very lucky because Suzanne sent him Joanna.
WW: Do you believe in signs from beyond?
Alan Hamel: I read a book called Signs, which was written by a medium. It is about how people from the other side come back and give us signs. One day I was sitting in my living room, which overlooks the pool. All of a sudden, there was a huge light. It must have been 15 feet in diameter, and it was pointed at me from the end of the pool and this blast of light kept shining at me. I got up to follow the light, but when I got there, it disappeared. It came back the following day and lasted about ten minutes. It never came back. Light is one of the big signs from people who have passed away.
WW: Did you think it was Suzanne sending you a sign?
Alan Hamel: It’s possible.
WW: Do you still have pictures of Suzanne around your home?
AH: Yes, I do. I can’t throw 55 years into the wind, I never will. Our business will still go on, our five decades of memories will live forever and I am currently in the process of making a documentary on Suzanne. I have been filming my family for decades and I am converting the footage so we can use it for the documentary.
WW: Getting back to Joanna, what drew you to her?
Alan Hamel: We knew each other because of the industry, but she is also an accomplished actress who has a great career. In fact, she has three movies opening this year. She recently went to Germany for a week to do PR for a film she is in. Joanna is very passionate about what she does.
WW: What do you and Joanna like to do together?
Alan Hamel: (laughs) I had not been to a movie theater in 35 years. I rent movies from my home. When Joanna found out she said, “We are going to a theater,” and now we go all the time. The first movie we saw together was called Relay. Then we saw F1 with Brad Pitt and then we saw a horror movie, which I looked away from the screen a lot because there was a lot of blood. She loves going to the movies and I have so much fun going with her.
WW: Was your family supportive when you began dating Joanna?
Alan Hamel: They were very supportive, and when we spoke, it was genuine and the real deal. I see them every week and they know that I don’t like living alone, yet at the same time, I am not ready to move in and live with someone. In fact, the first people I talked to about Joanna were my grandchildren. I am grateful when my family stops by, and I am very grateful for my time with Joanna. She walked into my life at a good time.
WW: Have you talked about Suzanne to Joanna during one of your many conversations?
AH: I did. I said after 55 years it is never going to go away. It will always be there, and I will always be thinking about Suzanne. I also said, “I hope it doesn’t push the wrong buttons.” She said, “No, I get it.” She is such an adult and really understands.
WW: We should also note, you are still working and are one busy bee.
Alan Hamel: I do. I have a show that runs on SuzanneSomers.com, Facebook and Instagram every Wednesday. I also still run Suzanne’s organic skin care line as well as cosmetics. We also have an organic line of nail polishes. I will continue to carry on with Suzanne’s website and all the clean and organic products she worked so hard to create.
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Woman's World does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.
