Soap opera star Morgan Fairchild is mourning the loss of her fiancé and longtime partner of nearly four decades.
The Emmy-nominated actress, 73, took to social media this weekend to announce Mark Seiler’s death on July 7, which she attributed to long COVID.
“My life partner (36 years together) and fiancé, Mark Seiler, passed away last Friday,” the “Falcon Crest” star captioned a black-and-white photo of the couple on Twitter. “He’d had Parkinson’s for several years but it seems to be long Covid that killed him after his third infection.”
Seiler had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2016, People reports.
On Instagram, the “devastated” Fairchild remembered her long-time love as a “warm, brilliant and very funny man.”
She also took the opportunity to remind her followers to “hold your loved ones close and please consider wearing a mask.”
The announcement of Seiler’s passing was not the first time Fairchild advocated for people to consider others in respect to spreading of coronavirus.
“Our masks are on the table #BeKind #MaskUp #VaxxUp,” Fairchild captioned a snap of the couple out to lunch in May 2022, in what appears to be her last Instagram post of Seiler.
Fairchild and Seiler first got together in the 1980s, after Fairchild ended her first marriage to Jack Calmes, and the pair have been together ever since.
When asked in 2020 if she and Seiler would ever tie the knot, Fairchild told Closer, “We’ve been together for a long time … so we may just leave it the way it is right now. We’re both getting older.”
Fairchild began her acting career in the 1970s and quickly rose to prominence on CBS soap opera “Search for Tomorrow.” She went on to star in a number of other soaps and primetime dramas throughout the 1980s, including “Flamingo Road,” “Paper Dolls,” and “Falcon Crest.”
In 1995, she landed the lead role of Sydney Chase on ABC soap “The City,” and appeared as that same character on “General Hospital” the following year. She returned to the long-running series in a different guest role last year. She’s also had recurring roles on “Day of Our Lives,” “The Bold and the Beautiful,” and is widely known for playing Chandler’s mom on “Friends.”