Tatum O'Neal opens up about a near-fatal overdose, says she 'almost died' and suffered a severe stroke
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Tatum O'Neal opened up about her 2020 near-fatal drug overdose that led to a stroke and years of recovery. The Oscar-winning actress revealed she had a long battle with substance abuse and in May 2020 she was left in a coma for six weeks after she overdosed on a "combination of pain medication, opiates, and morphine."
"I almost died," said the 59-year-old and shared that she had been an "addict [her] whole life, pretty much on and off, for the past 30 to 40 years." O'Neal's 37-year-old son and his siblings Emily, 32, and Sean, 35 recalled that they thought the incident made them believe it would be the last time they ever talked to her. "It was the phone call we’d always been waiting for," Kevin told People.
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O'Neal also had a number of seizures and a cardiac arrest
Talking to the outlet, Kevin also revealed that his mother "also had a cardiac arrest and a number of seizures. There were times we didn’t think she was going to survive." O'Neal had to work on regaining her memory and strength and to re-learn how to read and write while she spent a few years in rehabilitation centers.
"I’ve been through a lot," said the mother of three and revealed that at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, she was abusing the pain medication she took for her neck and back pain and also for rheumatoid arthritis. The 'Paper Moon' star was found by a friend after she overdosed in her apartment in Century City, California. O'Neal was then rushed to a hospital where she was diagnosed with the disorder Aphasia which usually occurs suddenly after a stroke or a head injury, according to Mayo Clinic.
O'Neal could not speak at all after she woke up from her coma
Speaking of a time of uncertainty, the actress' eldest son said, "She had become very isolated. With the addition of morphine and heavier pharmaceuticals, it was getting scary. Covid, chronic pain, all these things led to a place of isolation. In that place, I don’t think, for her, there was much hope."
"I had to call my brother and sister and say she was thought to be blind, deaf, and potentially might never speak again," he added. After O'Neal woke up from her coma, she was not able to speak at all. "She didn’t know where she was. She couldn’t say, ‘I’m scared,' ", Kevin recalled.
O'Neal began regaining her memory through "medical supervision and therapy" after two years of treatment at the rehabilitation center. Kevin who also struggled with susbtance abuse explained that "emotionally the things that made my mom want to take drugs in the first place, those things are still very present," and further added, "She could always want sobriety as a mom, but she never really wanted it for herself."
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The actress shared that she wants to be with her "beautiful three kids" which gives her the motivation to keep "trying" every day. O'Neal shares three children with former tennis pro John McEnroe whom she married in 1986. The couple then went through a nasty custody battle and divorce after their split in 1994.