Oscar winning actress Tatum O’Neal recently opened up about her journey to recovery after suffering from a severe stroke and drug overdose in 2020.
“I’ve been trying to get sober my whole life,” she told People. “Every day, I am trying.”
O’Neal overdosed on a combination of opiates, pain medication, and morphine in May of that year, resulting in a severe stroke that left her in a six-week-long coma, she told the outlet.
Joined by her three children, whom she shares with her ex-husband, famed tennis player John McEnroe, the actress looked back on her journey to sobriety and recovery over the past three years.
“There were times we didn’t think she was going to survive,” her eldest son Kevin McEnroe revealed to People.
When she woke up from the coma, she reportedly could not communicate. People reported that her children also feared that she wouldn’t be able to walk or speak again after she was diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that results from suffering brain damage in the area of the brain responsible for language.
She has attended multiple rehabilitation facilities in the years since to recover her strength and her ability to read and write.
According to her son Kevin, she also experienced cardiac arrest and “a number of seizures.”
“At times, it was touch and go,” he said. “I had to call my brother and sister and say she was thought to be blind, deaf and potentially might never speak again.”
O’Neal spoke candidly about her life-long struggles with addiction and getting sober, telling People, “I was an addict my whole life. Pretty much on and off, for the past 30 to 40 years.” She is also attending daily therapy and regular twelve step meetings to help her sobriety and recovery process.
“She could always want sobriety as a mom, but she never really wanted it for herself,” Kevin said. “She has embraced this attempt at recovery. She was always a very loving mom but when isolated, I think it was hard to find any love for herself.”
“Every day I am trying,” Tatum said. “I want to be with my beautiful three kids.”
O’Neal is best known for being the youngest Oscar winner of all time after winning an award in 1974 for her debut role in Paper Moon. She has enjoyed a long career in television and film since, including roles in Little Darlings and Rescue Me.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
