Tatum O’Neal is opening up about overdosing and suffering a stroke in 2020, after which she spent six weeks in a coma.
“I almost died,” the Oscar-winning actress told People in a story published Wednesday.
In May of 2020, a friend found O’Neal, who had overdosed on a mix of morphine, opiates and pain medication, in her apartment. The actress, 59, known for roles in “The Bad News Bears,” “Paper Moon” and “Little Darlings” was brought to the hospital.
“It was the phone call we’d always been waiting for,” O’Neal’s son Kevin McEnroe, 37, told People.
“She also had a cardiac arrest and a number of seizures,” he said. “There were times we didn’t think she was going to survive.”
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, O’Neal was using and abusing prescription medications — including some that had been prescribed to her for pain in her neck and back and for arthritis, according to People.
“She had become very isolated,” McEnroe said. “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.”
While admitted to the hospital, O’Neal and her family learned she had aphasia — which is a disorder that can come as a consequence due to damage in the part of the brain that that is responsible for language, per the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. She also had damage in her right frontal cortex, McEnroe said.
“At times, it was touch and go,” McEnroe 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 shares Kevin McEnroe, along with Sean McEnroe, 35 and Emily McEnroe, 32, with ex-husband John McEnroe, to whom she was married from 1986 to 1994.
The “International Velvet” actress has been in rehabilitation facilities over the last three years, working toward regaining her memory and reading and writing skills while building her strength.
She’d struggled with addiction for decades prior to the overdose, she said: “I’ve been through a lot.”
And she has a long way to go, according to her son: “Emotionally the things that made my mom want to take drugs in the first place, those things are still very present,” McEnroe said.
The actress is also in recovery, completing a 12-step program on top of daily therapy sessions, according to People.
O’Neal opened up about substance abuse and spirituality in 2018. Her mother also struggled with substance abuse, she said.
“My mother was an actor. She had her own issues with substance abuse back in the 70s and ended up becoming sort of a, I would say, a born again Christian,” O’Neal said.
Her own experience with substance abuse led her to question her “why.”
“I didn’t feel like I knew why I was born,” she said. “I got close to spirituality and I’ve gotten very close to higher power — and my own higher Power — and really believe that saved my life.”
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She told People in her profile published Wednesday that she’s been trying to get sober her “whole life.”
“Every day, I am trying,” she said.
If your or someone you know is struggling with substance use disorders, you can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.The service is free, confidential and available in English and Spanish.
