NEW YORK, March 10 (UPI) — The husband of late television personality Angela “Big Ang” Raiola claims he never left his wife’s side despite the fact that she stepped away from the relationship.
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Neil Murphy cleared the air about his relationship with his wife toward the end of her life.
“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,'” he said.
“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,” he added.
Before her death, Raiola said in an interview with Dr. Oz, Murphy “never stepped up,” and so she was “done with” the relationship, deeming her husband reportedly estranged.
Big Ang’s wake was held toward the end of February and was attended by Murphy as well as her Mob Wives co-stars including Carla Facciolo, Drita D’Avanzo and Renee Graziano. At the wake, Murphy told TMZ, “Angela loved all her fans, she was a people person.”
The celebrity died Feb. 18 from cancer of the lung and brain. She was 55 years old.
