Fair City's Bryan Murray has moved to full-time care amid his Alzheimer's battle, a step his partner and fellow actress Úna Crawford O'Brien described as "the hardest decision I've ever had to make".
The Dublin-born actor, known for playing Carrigstown's Bob Charles for two decades, announced his retirement from the popular RTÉ soap in April 2025, having gone public with his diagnosis in 2022.
Speaking on Sunday with Miriam on RTÉ Radio 1, Crawford O'Brien explained how Murray's "illness galloped" over the last year.
"The decision had to be made that Bryan would go into a nursing home," she explained. "It was the hardest decision I've ever made, but in a way it was taken out of my hands because his mood changed, he got a bad tummy bug, and he just wasn't aware of anything. I was running out of fuel. I couldn’t look after him."
Crawford O'Brien, who joined Fair City in 1998 as Renee Phelan, said she was heartbroken she couldn't look after him on her own.
"I think it was probably the hardest decision I've ever had to make because I really thought I could cope," she said. "I knew I was a strong person; I had survived my daughter dying, and I felt if I could survive that I could survive anything, so I was determined to look after Bryan myself, but I just couldn't in the end."
Crawford O'Brien said she enjoys visiting Murray and putting a smile on his face, and admitted they still have fun together.
"It was destroying our relationship, whereas now I'll visit him and I can make him laugh; we can sing songs, we can go for long walks, and we'll talk gobbledygook, but we’ll still laugh."
Crawford O'Brien explained how the show's scriptwriters were incredibly kind and sensitive in writing Murray out of Fair City.
"I’ve mentioned him over the last year; occasionally I’d say I’m bringing him to the doctors or I’ve an appointment for Bob to see the doctors, but now I’ve had a discussion with our executive producer Brigie de Courcy, and she has been incredible. She has said that she will go along with whatever we wanted," she said.
She added: "There is a very gentle writing Bob out officially. He’ll still be talked about. I’m not saying how he’s going, but it’s a very gentle way, and I certainly approve of it."
When asked how she deals with judgement about her situation, she admitted it's "so hurtful".
"I’m not on social media at all, and Bryan wasn’t either. It’s only if someone alerts me to something that I see it. I’m so hurt – even though I shouldn’t be – but it really upsets me that people think I would do it without putting huge thought into it," she said.
"I suppose we all think we can cope, and then the day comes and you can’t. If people are going to judge you for that, I just had to put it down. I couldn’t contend with it."
Crawford O'Brien recalled a hoax incident before Christmas, when her partner was falsely reported to have passed away, which she says was "just horrible".
"And then, before Christmas, somebody put on social media, supposedly from me, that he had died, and it wasn't true. People were phoning me, very upset. I’d know if I saw a phone call from someone I hadn’t heard from in ages that they had heard, or that they had read it."
Listen back to the full interview here
If you have been affected by issues raised in this article, please visit: www.rte.ie/helplines
