Everyone is still mourning the loss of larger than life Mob Wives star Big Ang after she succumbed to cancer on February 18th. The series aired its last episode on Wednesday followed by a tribute to everyone’s favorite Staten Islander that I couldn’t watch…to the commenter who compared the tacky special to a budget New Year’s Eve spectacle, you couldn’t have made a better comparison.
That said, it was incredibly hard to watch Ang wrapping up her final scenes by revealing her cancer had returned and that she’d split from husband Neil Murphy. While Ang and Neil’s ups and downs were chronicled this season and on Couples Therapy, the pair showcased a hilarious and fun-loving side on Ang’s lighthearted spin-off. Regardless of their relationship status at the time of Ang’s death, Neil clearly loved his wife immensely, and he wants to make sure everyone knows how much he adored her.
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Speaking to ET, the Neil asserts, “I was there at the end. I never left her side. I went to every procedure — even though she didn’t want me, I went. I was there at the hospital for the last two days with her. I mean, to me, we weren’t ‘estranged,'” adding, “She didn’t want me there, I didn’t want to argue with a sick person. I was on the phone with her every day. I talked to her before chemo, after chemo. When she had a couple of procedures done, she was in the hospital for a day, I was there. So, I wouldn’t call it estranged. It was just, you know, she was going through a rough time and she, I guess, took it out on me. And I wasn’t going to fight with her. I didn’t walk away [or] …left her. I was there.”
Neil admits that their marriage wasn’t perfect, citing Ang’s diagnosis as the reason she pushed him away in the last months of her life. He states, “She fell apart when she got sick, and she didn’t want me around. Doctor told her that stress … makes cancer get worse, and she said that I give her stress, but when I was at the hospital, she was always, ‘My husband… my husband’s here, my husband’s here.’ So, I don’t know, I guess that’s the way that people wanted to brand it, that I was ‘estranged,’ but you know, I was there.”
Not surprisingly, Neil shares that Ang kept her big personality and sense of humor throughout her final days, recalling, “I had to take her to the bathroom … and she decided to hum a song and dance. I had to hold her up, but she was dancing! And the nurse said she was doing it in the elevator on the way to the tests, too. A song came on in the elevator and she was dancing.”
Of the couple’s final moments together, a heartbroken Neil reveals, “I was lying in bed with [Ang] the day before, but she was kind of out of it. I was trying to calm her down, so I was just rubbing her back for like an hour trying to put her to sleep. That was the last time we spent together.”
Despite their rocky relationship, Ang’s husband is left with wonderful memories of their marriage, explaining, “You know, we had a lot of good times together. It was a crazy life at the end, you know. We were regular people, then she became a celebrity. It was kind of a crazy life being married to her, but it was good. I would never change anything.”
Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to Neil, and all of Ang’s family and friends.
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[Photo Credit: VH1]
