RYAN ONEIL ON FARRAH FAWSETT'S DEATH!

Farrah Fawsett died this morning at 9:28 a.m. at St. John’s Heath Center in Santa Monica, Calif. She was with longtime partner Ryan O’Neal, friend Alana Stewart, friend and hairdresser Mela Murphy and her doctor Lawrence Piro. She had recently returned to St. John’s for treatment of complications from anal cancer, first diagnosed three years ago.

RYAN ONEIL TOLD PEOPLE:

“She’s gone. She now belongs to the ages,” O’Neal tells PEOPLE, also confirming that she received the last rites of the Catholic Church. “She’s now with her mother and sister and her God. I loved her with all my heart. I will miss her so very, very much. She was in and out of consciousness. I talked to her all through the night. I told her how very much I loved her. She’s in a better place now.”

Added O’Neal: “She was with her team when she passed … Her eyes were open, but she didn’t say anything. But you could see in her eyes that she recognized us.”

Though O’Neal recently said that he and Fawcett had planned to wed, they did not tie the knot. “There just wasn’t time, and Farrah wasn’t in any condition to do it,” says O’Neal.

Friends and family plan to honor Fawcett with a funeral service at a Catholic cathedral in Los Angeles in the next few days.

SHE FOUGHT THE FIGHT! SO SAD!!!