Tatum O'Neal reached the height of her career at age 10 when she became the youngest person
to ever win an Oscar.
She received the award for her portrayal of a precocious orphaned girl traveling with
a conman — played by her real-life father Ryan O'Neal — in Paper Moon.
"Then if you ain't my pa I want my two hundred dollars."
But her success as an actor ran parallel to a troubled adolescence marked by the absence
of a mother figure.
From age 7 onward, Tatum and her brother were raised by their father, as their mother — actor
Joanna Moore — dealt with drug addiction.
Her father, however, was himself an actor leading a Hollywood life.
When Tatum was 15, her father encouraged her to use cocaine to lose weight — a habit
that quickly turned into dependency.
In 2004, Tatum released an autobiography titled A Paper Life, in which she described her father
as short-tempered and violent.
Ryan denied his daughter's allegations, writing in a statement at the time:
"It is a sad day when malicious lies are told in order to become a 'best-seller.'
It is my hope that this book was written to serve as her therapy."
Tatum O'Neal's personal relationships continued to be volatile into adulthood.
In her 20s, Tatum’s cocaine use had turned into addiction.
"Addiction is a disease.
It is not a moral affliction."
She was 22 when she met the 26-year-old world champion tennis player John McEnroe.
O'Neal quickly fell for McEnroe, telling ABC News in 2002,
"He was very good-looking.
I thought he was charming.
[...] It was sort of a chemical attraction or physical attraction, a love at first sight
kind of thing."
But Tatum had a drug problem and McEnroe, an anger problem.
Both of those elements marked their six-year relationship, which produced three children:
Kevin, Sean, and Emily.
In a 2002 interview with the Evening Standard that followed the release of McEnroe's autobiography,
You Cannot Be Serious, Tatum said McEnroe's attitude on the tennis court reflected his
attitude at home.
She told the outlet,
"[John McEnroe] is a cruel, cruel man."
According to ABC News, Tatum also alleged McEnroe's temperament was exacerbated by steroid
use.
In his memoir, the tennis player acknowledged that O'Neal may have seen a bit of her father
in him, writing,
"Maybe my fiery spirit reminded her of her father's own famous temper."
While Tatum understands why so many people make the connection between Ryan O’Neal
and John McEnroe, she knows the two differ in many ways.
Tatum told the New York Times in 2015:
"Everybody says, 'Oh, you married your father.'
I've heard that a million times.
But John is a much better man than my father."
If Tatum O'Neal's drug addiction was an issue throughout her marriage to John McEnroe, it
continued to be during their divorce and in the years that followed.
Their son Kevin told People in 2015 that he barely remembers his parents speaking to each
other, admitting:
"We were brought up where they didn't talk much unless we spoke to them separately."
Both parents shared custody of their three children after they split.
When speaking to NBC News, Tatum O'Neal said that the time spent without her kids negatively
affected her and that drugs became her companion.
In 1994, she checked herself into rehab.
Her life took a turn for the worse in 1997 when she started using heroin.
That year, McEnroe married rock singer Patty Smyth and O'Neal's mother, Joanna Moore, died
in her arms.
According to NBC, O'Neal lost custody of the children the following year when her daughter
Emily found a syringe lying around the apartment.
After battling drug addiction for years, O'Neal became sober, according to the Los Angeles
Times.
But her relationship with McEnroe continued to sour as they released tell-all memoirs.
However, the dust seems to have settled slightly, as they have been seen together in public
- in honor of one of their children.
In 2015, both attended a reading following the release of Kevin's book, Our Way.
Tatum told People:
"John was really nice to me [...] I would say there isn't a relationship but there is
respect now."
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available.
Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact
SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).