Farah Fawcett has broken her silence about her cancer battle and described how she was terrified by the treatment.
The former Charlie's Angel also revealed how she set up a 'sting operation' to trap a hospital worker selling details about her illness.
The terminally ill 62 year old, who is no longer receiving treatment and is bedridden, deliberately withheld the news that her cancer had returned in May 2007.
Within days the diagnosis had been reported in a US supermarket tabloid.
An investigation at the UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles,California, revealed hospital clerk Lawanda Jackson
had leaked the details in return for over £3,000.
In her only interview since being diagnosed with cancer Fawcett spoke of how having her fight played out in public made it more of an ordeal.
'It's much easier to go through something and deal with it without being under a microscope,' she said.
'It was stressful. I was terrified of getting the chemo. It's not pleasant. And the radiation is not pleasant.'
The interview with the Los Angeles Times newspaper took place last August before her condition deteriorated.
Her partner Ryan O'Neal last week revealed how Fawcett is bedridden and no longer receiving any treatment. He also said the actress has lost her trademark blonde hair and is being fed by intravenously.
Fawcett gave permission for the LA Times to publish the interview today ahead of a two hour documentary that documents her fight against anal cancer.
The documentary is being screened in the US on Friday with much of the footage shot by Rod Stewart's ex-wife Alana Hamilton.
Speaking of her two and a half year fight against the disease, she said: "It becomes your life.
People call, 'How are you?' 'How do you feel?' 'We're praying for you.' 'Do you still have your hair?' 'What do you feel like?' When every single call is that kind of call … it's all you talk about. It's all consuming. Then, your quality of life is never the same."
The actress said she was distressed by details of her condition being leaked to US supermarket tabloids.
After having been told the cancer had returned in May 2007 she withheld the news from nearly all of her relatives and friends.
"I set it up with the doctor," she said. "I said, 'OK, you know and I know.' . . . I knew that if it came out, it was coming from UCLA."
Within days of her diagnosis, the news was in the National Enquirer.
"I couldn't believe how fast it came out," Fawcett said. "Maybe four days."
An investigation later revealed Lawanda Jackson had been accessing her records, and that of other celebrities including Britney Spears.
Jackson, 50, died from breast cancer last week before she could stand trial.
Her lawyer said she was a "good woman" who had made bad decisions after being tempted by money.
Fawcett was also critical of the hospital for pressurising her into starting a foundation in her name.
She described hospital chiefs as being "too pushy" and said they even made out a letter she could sign and fill in with an amount of money to kick start the foundation.
The document read: "Ms. Farrah Fawcett has established a fund in the Division of Digestive Diseases with the expansive goal of facilitating prevention and diagnosis in gastrointestinal cancers."
Fawcett said she was concerned about having her cancer fight played out in public.
"I'm a private person," she said in the interview for the LA Times.
"I'm shy about people knowing things. And I'm really shy about my medical care.
" It would be good if I could just go and heal and then when I decided to go out, it would be OK.
"It seems that there are areas that should be off-limits."
(amazon.com). Without her I would go as far as to say it would never have been anywhere as big. Never had so much been owed to a blonde mane of hair!
Remarkable when you think that she only appeared in the first series and a further 6 episodes during the next two years after she was sued by the producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg and Farrah lost. This was because she was furious that she was paid only £5,500 per episode and announced she was leaving the show at the end of the first series.
for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe. Catch the Dvd at 
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