(UPDATE 1/5/2020 11:36am EST: TMZ is now reporting that Roberts has passed away.)
Death is a pretty finite thing in the real world, though apparently, even our grasp on the one thing we are all truly born to do has slipped in the first days of 2021. The year’s first weekend brought sad news that former Charlie’s Angels star Tanya Roberts had died at age 65 after collapsing in her home on Christmas day and a stretch in the hospital on a ventilator. It was reportedly not a coronavirus-related matter, but it was a sudden turn for the actress and one that shocked many in Hollywood.
But on Monday TMZ, which had originally broken the story and even sourced it through Roberts’ PR rep, had to retract its story and explain that it simply wasn’t true: Roberts was still alive:
The rep had told us she died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A. He told us Tanya’s husband had informed him that Tanya had passed.
We even got a quote from the rep from Tanya’s husband, Lance, saying, “As I held her in her last moments, she opened her eyes.”
Now the rep, Mike Pingel, tells TMZ, Lance got a call just after 10 AM Monday from the hospital saying Tanya was still alive. Pingel said Lance truly believed Tanya had died.
As TMZ noted, it had also gotten word from family friends that Roberts had died, claiming that her husband had contacted them with the sad news. That makes for an even more bizarre story, for sure, though it’s unclear what condition Roberts is in at this current time. The recent months have been filled with enough suffering and loss, and this is likely a painful footnote in what will ultimately be a very sad story. But it’s likely to be one of the weirdest stories of 2021, and we’re only a few days into the year.
(Via TMZ)
