As the daughter of 70s heartthrob Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal grew up in the Hollywood spotlight.
In 1974, she also became the youngest person to ever win an Oscar. But like many child
stars, the Paper Moon actor's life was no fairytale.
Winning the Oscar for Paper Moon should have been a joyous event for 10-year-old Tatum
O'Neal. Instead, the actor told Dateline NBC that she felt, quote, "overwhelming sadness"
and utterly "abandoned" in her moment of glory. In her memoir, A Paper Life, O'Neal related
that neither of her parents attended the awards ceremony. And while Tatum did receive a congratulatory
phone call from her father, her mother, Joanna Moore, said nothing.
In Tatum's adorably short acceptance speech, she thanked the movie's director and her father.
Sadly, Tatum has claimed that the Academy Award drove a painful wedge between father
and daughter, writing in her memoir,
"In the press, he played the doting father. But in his eyes, I read the truth: deep resentment
that his own brilliant performance was being dismissed."
Tatum has also claimed that her father's jealousy boiled over into a violent rage. During a
2004 appearance on Larry King Live, the actor said that while she has no memory of the alleged
disturbing event, a family friend informed her that Ryan reportedly punched his young
daughter in the face after she received the nomination. When Stone Phillips of Dateline
NBC asked Tatum about how her win impacted their relationship, the star's reply was heartbreaking,
quote, "It sort of destroyed us."
Tatum O'Neal's mother was Joanna Moore, a popular actor who famously appeared on The
Andy Griffith Show. Moore married Ryan O'Neal in 1963 and had daughter Tatum that same year.
Her brother, Griffin O'Neal, was born one year later. After the two divorced in 1967,
Moore's drug and alcohol use spiraled into a full blown addiction.
In interviews and her memoirs, Tatum has described an upbringing that no child should ever have
to endure. She wrote in her memoir, A Paper Life:
"In the grip of addiction, she [Moore] had virtually abandoned me and Griffin, leaving
us in squalor — starving, shoeless, and ragged, as well as beaten and abused by the
men in her life."
In her second book, Found: A Daughter's Journey Home, Tatum claimed that she and her brother
were once locked in a garage and forced to eat dog food to keep from starving. The neglect
and abuse became so severe that Moore lost custody of her children in 1970 — Tatum
was only six years old.
Moore continued to act through the mid-80s, but tragically never got sober and was arrested
multiple times for alleged DUIs. She died from lung cancer in 1997 at the age of 63.
In a show of empathy for her late troubled mother, Tatum lamented on The Wendy Williams
Show in 2018 that Moore was, quote, "marginalized" and "pushed aside" due to her addiction issues.
After Joanna Moore lost custody, Tatum and her brother Griffin went to live with their
father. Unfortunately, the actor has claimed that life with Ryan O'Neal wasn't much better.
According to Tatum's interview with Dateline NBC, she was, quote, "exposed" to her father's
sexual escapades and drug use as a young child. The Oscar winner went on to recount how the
Love Story actor's alleged physical, emotional, and verbal abuse affected her, telling Dateline,
"It's hard to grow up like that."
For his part, Ryan has woven an ambiguous narrative in interviews. He has denied many
of his daughter's claims, but also admitted to Vanity Fair in 2009 that he was a, quote,
"hopeless father." However, in the same interview, he changed course again and railed against
both children, calling daughter Tatum a derogatory term and expressing fury over her A Paper
Life memoir. While appearing on Piers Morgan Tonight in 2011, Ryan insisted,
"She had a wonderful childhood. She met Queen Elizabeth."
At the time of the Piers Morgan interview, the father-daughter duo were in the midst
of filming a reality show, Ryan and Tatum: The O'Neals. Previously estranged, the pair
used the show as a means of reconciliation. Sadly, their relationship continued to be
volatile after the series ended, with Ryan publicly expressing his displeasure with Tatum
in the years that followed.
Tatum O'Neal's childhood was made even more hellish by sexual abuse. When speaking with
Dateline NBC about A Paper Life in 2004, O'Neal confirmed that her mother often left her alone
with strangers who preyed upon her as a child.
She also discussed another tragic event: a friend of her father's reportedly gave her
drugs and then assaulted her. During her 2018 appearance on The Wendy Williams Show, the
actor told the host that she was also molested by her mother's boyfriend's brother. That
October, O'Neal posted a heartbreaking post on Instagram, which read,
"I am a woman and I have been sexually assaulted more than once!! It was not my fault when
I was 5, 6, 12, 13, 15. – All by older men who I thought were safe!"
Tatum O'Neal and her brother Griffin endured their harsh childhood years together. And
yet, after the actor published her first memoir, Larry King read a statement from Griffin that
read,
"It saddens me that she has told our story so incredibly wrong [...] specifically regarding
our father, Ryan [O'Neal]."
However, Griffin later changed his tune and spent the next decade corroborating his sister's
accusations of abuse. Like his sister and mother, Griffin also battled addiction. In
a 2015 interview with People, he told the publication he was sober but no longer on
speaking terms with his sister.
Meanwhile, Tatum's half-brother, Patrick O'Neal, has claimed that his experience with father
Ryan was completely different. In 2012, the sportscaster went on Access Hollywood to defend
his father from critical media coverage and insisted that Ryan was a wonderful and loving
man. While Patrick wished Tatum had not written her tell-all memoirs, he wrote in a 2012 HuffPost
piece,
"Tatum O'Neal [...] was always very kind and generous to me."
The son of Charlie's Angels star Farrah Fawcett, Redmond O'Neal is Tatum's youngest brother.
Redmond also became addicted to drugs and was in and out of rehabilitation centers and
jail. Revealing to People in 2015 that she had attempted to help her brother, Tatum stated,
"From what I've seen, there is no way he's going to survive."
In 2018, Redmond was arrested for armed robbery and attempted murder.
When Tatum O'Neal married John McEnroe in 1986, the attractive, famous couple seemed
to have it all. But the bad boy of tennis and the former child star had a notoriously
tumultuous relationship. Both O'Neal and McEnroe have written about their drug use, but O'Neal
admitted that she was the one who was truly addicted. The actor told Dateline NBC that
as the years went on, McEnroe's alleged temper increased and, during one fight, he reportedly
pushed and kicked her. The couple divorced in 1994.
After the separation, there was a custody battle over the pair's three young children,
and O'Neal's drug use spiraled out of control. After McEnroe told the world about O'Neal's
drug abuse in a tell-all book, The Bad News Bears actor retaliated by accusing the tennis
pro of using steroids. McEnroe eventually remarried, and regardless of their decades-long
estrangement, O'Neal told People in 2015,
"I would say there isn't a relationship but there is respect now."
Despite her accusations of bullying and abuse, O'Neal expressed regret over her decision
to divorce McEnroe in a CBS Sunday Morning interview in 2020. The actor mused,
"The happiest times of my life were the times that I was married [...] I was loved, I was
cared for [...] I've never met anyone who even comes close to my ex-husband."
In 2008, the New York Daily News broke the story that Tatum O'Neal had been arrested
only a few blocks from her Manhattan home. The former child star claimed that she was,
quote, "doing research for a part," but police reportedly found crack and cocaine in her
pocket.
"And as we all know, we are not our best selves when we are in active addiction."
According to a source cited by the publication, O'Neal supposedly pleaded with the police
officers,
"I've been clean for a long time. Today was the first time I was relapsing, but you guys
saved me!"
After being released on bail, O'Neal spoke with the New York Post and reiterated that
the police "saved" her and insisted that she was still sober. The actress explained that
she was feeling incredibly depressed after the death of her dog, but added,
"I'm eternally grateful, as sort of grim as the situation was, that I didn't get to do
what my disease was telling me to do."
According to ABC News, O'Neal was charged with misdemeanor criminal possession of a
controlled substance, but agreed to enter a treatment program. A few months later, O'Neal
told People,
"I'm sober. I thank God every day I have been able to overcome my demons and my stuff."
After winning the Oscar at the age of 10, Tatum O'Neal starred in the films The Bad
News Bears, International Velvet, and Little Darlings. From the mid-1980s on, however,
she worked sporadically in television and film, with bit parts on shows like Criminal
Minds.
Luckily, O'Neal caught a break in 2004, when she won the recurring role of Maggie Gavin
in the Denis Leary-led dramedy series, Rescue Me. She appeared on the show for all seven
seasons.
Unfortunately, O'Neal has said that booking jobs in Hollywood has been challenging since
her breakout role in Paper Moon. When CBS Sunday Morning's Tracy Smith asked the actor
how unparalleled success at such a young age affected her career, O'Neal answered,
"I think it really screws you up. Case in point: I think I would work consistently,
but I suck at auditioning."
The actress then added:
"The fact that I can't get myself a job because I can't audition properly is funny to me."
Sadly, life threw Tatum O'Neal another curve ball when she turned 50 years old. When the
actor reached out to the Arthritis Foundation in 2016, she revealed that she had been diagnosed
with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that had caused excruciating pain in her back,
knees, hands, and ankles. As the actor admitted to the organization, quote, "It's been a tough
road."
After undergoing surgeries for her back and neck discs, O'Neal tried the medication methotrexate
in an attempt to alleviate her RA symptoms. Unfortunately, her body had such a bad reaction
to the drug that she developed chronic pneumonia. But thankfully, O'Neal also told the magazine
that her children had been her biggest supporters during this time. Four years later, O'Neal
was still suffering from RA complications and told CBS Sunday Morning,
"My hands stopped working [...] I can't tie my shoes. I have to re-learn to write."
The actor endured more surgeries and posted a heartbreaking picture of her bruised and
scarred back on Instagram in 2020, writing in the caption,
"Believe it or not this is me actually getting better."
Tatum O'Neal's first suicide attempt occurred when she was only 12 years old. The actor
described what led her to the dark moment in A Paper Life and with Dateline NBC. O'Neal
traveled to Europe with her father, his friend, and her best friend, 18-year-old Melanie Griffith.
She reportedly walked in on her father and Griffith together and became so distraught
at the betrayal that she attempted to take her own life. After she woke up, the actor
realized that she had been sexually assaulted by her father's friend.
In October 2020, anonymous law enforcement sources claimed to TMZ that O'Neal had allegedly
threatened to take her own life. As is standard, the actor was reportedly taken to a hospital
and placed on a psychiatric hold for further evaluation. As of early March 2021, neither
O'Neal nor her representative had publicly discussed the alleged incident.
If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse and mental health, please
contact SAMHSA's 24-hour National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).