Tanya Roberts has died after premature death declaration from publicist

Lance O’Brien, Roberts’s longtime partner, said that he visited the hospital on Sunday, where Roberts tried to grab him but “faded” before making contact. O’Brien, falsely believing that she died, informed publicist Mike Pingel, who then released a false statement announcing Roberts’s death the next day.

Later that morning, during an interview with Inside Edition, O’Brien received a phone call with the news that Roberts had not passed.

“Now you’re telling me that she’s alive?” he said on the phone call. “Thank the Lord. Thank God.”

Roberts’s career spanned several decades and crossed genres. She first became a household name through her role in Charlie’s Angels before starring alongside Roger Moore in A View to a Kill in 1985. The actress then tried her hand at comedy as Midge Pinciotti in That ’70s Show, a role that she left behind when her husband, Barry Roberts, became terminally ill in 2001. After her husband passed, Roberts was romantically linked to O’Brien, her domestic partner of 18 years at the time of her death on Tuesday.

Prior to the announcement that Roberts had not yet passed, several of her former That ’70s Show co-stars shared tributes to the actress on Twitter.

Topher Grace, who played the main protagonist, Eric Forman, shared his sorrow in a tweet sent Monday morning.

“I was so sad to hear that Tanya Roberts has passed away,” he wrote. “I had never acted before and, to be honest, a little nervous around her. But she couldn’t have been kinder. We’ll miss you Midge.”

Danny Masterson, who portrayed his friend Steven Hyde, shared similar sentiments, calling Roberts “a great one” and “a wonderful person to work with.”

The actress behind matriarch Kitty Forman, Debra Jo Rupp, also grieved in response to Roberts’s erroneously reported death with an anecdote celebrating the latter’s comedic timing.

“In the first season of 70’s we had a scene in the kitchen, drinking cocktails and laughing together. She laughed, spit her drink in my face, apologized profusely and did it 3 more times,” Rupp wrote. “I loved her. RIP beauty.”

Ashton Kutcher, another cast member on the show, responded to Grace and Rupp on Monday to say that Roberts did not die. He has not tweeted as of press time since the news of her actual death was reported.

According to Fox News, Roberts died after she was hospitalized for complications of a urinary tract infection that reportedly spread to her kidneys, liver, gallbladder, and blood.

O’Brien told the outlet that he was “devastated” by the actress’s death.