Suzanne Somers’ Husband Alan Hamel and Son Bruce Reflect on the Star’s Final Moments (Exclusive)
How are you two doing today how are you doing well I uh go in and out I have my family around me and have had since this happened and uh they haven’t told me this but I think there was a plan make sure he’s not alone and I love that so I go in and out when I think about what happened I lose it and then I regain it and it’s probably going to be that way for a while until things settle down but I I lost I lost half of me we were one I lost half of me like that I think yesterday we were in a bubble and it was it was special to all be together and today the overwhelming outpouring of love from everyone uh um is is heartfelt uh um and it but it’s a whole additional wave of emotion as well yesterday she was just Mom and today she’s back to being Suzanne Summers in everyone’s eyes and I appreciate that and I appreciate everything that she’s done and the way she has touched so many people you know we we started off with thousands of people and tens of thousands of people then hundreds of thousands of people and it’s amazing all over the world people aren’t just writing in I feel badly for you my condolences they poured out their hearts she had touched them one way or another she fought and fought and fought and used every possible kind of health care whatever was right and it looked like she was going to make it and then it just overwhelmed her and I was I was with her in bed 5:00 in the morning Sunday and so it was peaceful and I was glad that our whole family could come and see her and it was a beautiful experience what was the final exchange between the two of you she wasn’t talking at the end the last couple of days she stopped eating she stopped talking wouldn’t take her medicine and we didn’t know if she was alive or not and I kept taking her blood pressure and but she wouldn’t respond she was not responsive in any way and then when I kissed her she responded kissing me back and I knew that she heard what I was saying I had talked to her for hours well into the night hoping that she could hear me and I think she did hear me we knew this day would come but we thought it would be me because I’m 10 years older than Suzanne and then I thought what a conundrum if it’s me first then she’s alone I don’t want her to be alone how would you describe the relationship they um were inseparable uh um and I joke that they were functionally codependent and with a small F on functionally cuz uh uh there’s not many people you know people say oh I could never spend that much time with my mate and they never got tired of each other uh um they were they were like this Allan is very private doesn’t doesn’t want to be a public person my mother loved being in the public and so he protected her you know my mother had an amazing talent for being 100% present with whomever she was with and that wasn’t just a public Persona she was 100% a wife 100% a grandmother 100% a sister 100% a mother Bruce you got to see that relationship between your mother and Allan from a different angle what did Allan mean to her it wasn’t always so Rosy it was for me but the reality is is everything takes hard work and these two started on um it was a because they were very different people there was friction there that they would work through and sometimes it was tumultuous but what’s ironic is that for two people who everyone thought wouldn’t work at the beginning they’re who we I I’ve been married for 32 years they’re who we model our relationship after we you know make sure we don’t go to bed angry with each other we make sure that we speak from our heart speak the truth uh um part of a great love is showing up and these two showed up for each other 100% every day I want to ask you um about the poem you wrote to Suzanne it was um beautiful tell me about writing that I have sent her a lot of love letters um didn’t have to be a birthday or an anniversary it was just I’d feel something and I would want to memorialize the moment and I’d send it to her and that’s what that really was it happened to coincide with her birthday she would have been 77 but it’s I could never find a feeling that was deep enough to really to really describe what our relationship was and I I’m not exaggerating the longer we were together the deeper the relationship and in every respect and that was a big one respect was a big one and she also was not only the matron of the family she’s the one who actually carved out this family.
Because when we got together I came with two kids and she came with Bruce and putting two families together is brutal and really works really well ours work really well we are all one we talked to Tony her Dancing with the Stars partner and Allan here’s what here’s what he said Tony said that you and Suzanne were the poster Children Of Love wow oh thank you I’ll I’ll take that I’ll take that one in life you never know what’s going to happen Suzanne and I didn’t plan any of this okay we weren’t wise enough old enough didn’t have enough wisdom to plan anything this just evolved we didn’t plan on being together constantly for 42 of our 55 years we didn’t plan that at all we just evolved we wanted to be together and she said to me one day you know when you’re in another room in the house and I miss you and I said I feel the same way and I know that to a lot of people uh that sounds really weird and it is weird but it worked for us she was my everything I want to ask you um Bruce about being the son of Suzanne Summers what was that like I had 11 years where it was the two of us you know sort of us against the world uh um and then we uh moved down to Los Angeles and she was really going to make this thing called acting give it a go and shortly thereafter she landed Three’s Company and we started blending families uh um I think that uh of course there was some getting used to it uh um I wouldn’t do it any other way to have lived and grown raised very sort of humbly uh um and then have a lot of privilege um gave me a lot of gratitude but more importantly there was her and in fact when we would be in Las Vegas and she we’d be talking and she’d be get getting ready to go do a show it’d be 10 minutes before the show and she had look at me and said I have to go be her now uh um and it’s a different Persona it wasn’t it wasn’t a fake persona it was just another aspect of her we all knew and we all enjoyed it I mean it’s she provided an incredible ride for all of us and everyone not obviously Allan everyone knows about their relationship but myself and and um we’re a blended family so I call my step brother and step sister my brother and sister all of us always felt loved Bruce you know um your mother had such energy when did things change for her and how was it it was it was actually pretty rapid uh um because in the last like three years when she even when she uh broke her neck uh she fell down the stairs and broke her neck uh um she’s just hearty Irish Stock and it was about 6 weeks before she actually went to the hospital uh um and she was just finally in excruciating pain but that’s just a sort of keyhole into her spirit and during the last year or so when she was in pain I’d ask her are you in pain and she said so much it’s not even worth talking about it and that’s her strength just to push it out and somewhere in the middle of that at every holiday she was present and we were having these beautiful exchanges and she even managed to cook her incredible meals and Thanksgiving and all of those wonderful experiences how will you keep Suzanne with you each and every day I don’t know I uh I have talked to her for hours and hours and hours since she uh since she wasn’t responding uh hoping knowing she could hear me uh if there’s a way for Suzanne to Signal me that she’s around me uh I would welcome that and uh I I don’t know how I’m going to keep Suzanne with me but I know she’s going to be with me forever and uh I took her wedding ring off um before she was SA taken away from the house and I will wear it around my neck on a chain for the rest of my life that’s a special ring because we didn’t buy it my dad in Toronto went shopping one day and he reached in the potato bin at the supermarket and pulled out this uh ring and the manager he turned it into the manager of the St and the manager said if no one claims it he said it’s yours so my dad went back a week later nobody claimed it he sent it to us and said uh maybe this is your wedding ring guess what it fit perfectly and on the inside of the ring is the initial S Bruce how will you remember your mom and how will she stay with you.
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I already feel that she’s around I feel tapped into her energy and it comes through me and my mother used to always say always speak from your heart because that’s the voice of God and that’s is true and honest and sort of that what I can do to honor her always is to speak from my heart uh um she’s always with me and I feel her all around it’s it’s not something when you know you know it’s not something you can explain but you feel it this is the cake that we had made for my mother Suzanne love cake love cake we would go to weddings and we’d get there and I’d say how well do you know these people because I’d never heard of them she said I’ve only met them once actually she was there for the cake I’m not kidding it’s true I’m not kidding we went to a friend’s wedding and there must have been 150 people there they had a gigantic cake and she accidentally cut her foot on something we decided to go home so on the way out we walked by the cake so she looked around to make sure no one was looking went behind the cake and did [Music] this yeah it’s kind of a secret people don’t know my mother had a healthy appetite and when I was a kid when you’re a teenage boy you eat a lot my mother would always out eat me and so her nickname was Mr. Ed like the horse if there is one one thing that you could say to her what would it be I would tell her how much how in love I am with her and how she makes me feel and I guess feelings but how do you describe your feelings I think feelings is really what it’s all about because there’s no way to describe what your feelings are if they’re really entrenched really deep deep feelings which mine are which hers was as well so all you can do is demonstrate how you feel about somebody and we wasn’t always great we had some tough times okay and then until one day we were saying terrible things to each other and we’re talking about breaking up and in her wisdom she said let’s just let’s just cool this for a moment moment she said let’s surrender to one another and I’ll do what you want me to do and you’ll do what I want you to do and we’ll respect each other and we’ll stop with the bickering and the name calling and that was really the beginning wisdom knows years ago that’s great it’s great wisdom and Al we appreciate you talking to us know was a hard day and Bruce thank you for being here.
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