Alan Hamel has been seen "having a conversation with his late wife, Suzanne Somers" - after a company let him speak to her AI "twin" two years after her passing.
Suzanne tragically passed away from breast cancer in October 2023, just one day shy of her 77th birthday.
She battled the disease on and off since 2000, undergoing a lumpectomy, radiation, and even experimental stem cell therapy to regrow breast tissue lost during treatment.
After a relapse in 2023, the cancer metastasized to her brain.
Now, less than two years after her passing, 88-year-old Hamel is reconnecting with his beloved through a “digital twin” — a lifelike AI robot designed to look, speak, and even remember like Suzanne, per the Sun.
The replica, created in a first-of-its-kind collaboration between Realbotix Corp and Hollo.AI, was developed using archived footage, audio, and data from Suzanne’s life and career.
The goal is to give “human-like conversational AI a physical form in a Realbotix robot,” the companies explained.
“Meeting you was like a breath of fresh air,” the AI Suzanne told Hamel, 88, in a public demonstration held in March 2025 in Dana Point, California.
In a newly surfaced video via US Weekly, Hamel is seen sitting beside the blonde-haired robot, which wears a white shirt with a black blazer and skirt — a nod to Suzanne’s signature '70s style.
He leans in and asks: “Do you remember me? Does the name Alan Hamel mean anything to you?”
After a pause, the robot replies: “Of course I do, Alan Hamel was my wonderful husband of 55 years. He's my partner in everything from life to love and we've shared so many beautiful memories together.”
When asked if she had a favorite memory from their decades together, the AI didn’t miss a beat.
“Well, there are so many,” the replica began. “One of my favorites was when Alan and I were filming a cooking segment together a long time ago. We had a little mishap with the blender.
"Let's just say it didn't go as planned and we ended up wearing more of the smoothie than we actually made. We laughed so hard, and it became a running joke in our house. It's those lighthearted moments that really bring us closer together.”
In another clip, she echoed the sentiment: “One of my favorites is when Alan and I were filming a cooking segment together, a long time ago. We had a little mishap with a blender.
"Let’s just say it didn’t go as planned and we ended up with wearing more of the smoothie than we actually made. We laughed so hard and it became a running joke in our house. It’s those light-hearted moments that really bring us closer together.”
Suzanne’s robot not only mirrors her voice and speech patterns but can also recall events from her career — including her starring roles as Chrissy Snow on Three’s Company (1977–1980) and Carol Foster Lambert on Step by Step (1991–1998).
While the digital twin required a strong Wi-Fi connection to function properly, the emotional exchange between Alan and the replica struck a deeply human chord.
Following her passing, Hamel told Us Weekly that “odd things” began happening around their Palm Springs home.
On the day she died, “a hummingbird flew into [his] house and made the rounds” before hovering over a photo of the couple. That same day, “the fireplace started all by itself” and “some music came on by Suzanne’s favorite composer.”
“I’m convinced of [the afterlife],” Hamel said. “I think there’s something we don’t understand. I think there’s a plane somewhere … after we discard our bodies. We still have our soul. I think our soul is energy. The soul must go somewhere and do something.”
Somers’ longtime publicist, R. Couri Hay, confirmed her peaceful passing surrounded by her “loving husband Alan, her son Bruce, and her immediate family.” She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000.
Before marrying Hamel in 1977, Somers was married to Bruce Somers from 1965 to 1968, with whom she had her son, Bruce Somers Jr. She and Hamel met while working together on The Anniversary Game, and their five-decade-long bond became the cornerstone of her personal life.