Tatum O’Neal was recently seen spending time with family at a fan convention in Los Angeles. The actress wore a black dress, coat, glasses and several necklaces, and had her hair pinned up. She used a cane while walking outside the event.
Her daughter, Emily McEnroe, and son-in-law, Tim Massarelli, were with her. The outing comes as O’Neal approaches her 63rd birthday on Nov. 5, more than six years after a near-fatal medical emergency.
In May 2020, O’Neal suffered a stroke after overdosing on morphine, opiates and other pain medication. She also experienced several seizures and cardiac arrest, and spent six weeks in a coma.
In a 2023 interview, her son Kevin McEnroe said he and his siblings, Sean and Emily, had feared she might not survive. He described his mother as increasingly isolated during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, while she was dealing with chronic pain and misusing medications, including prescriptions for neck and back pain and rheumatoid arthritis.
“With the addition of morphine and heavier pharmaceuticals, it was getting scary,” he said. “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.”
O’Neal made her film debut at age nine in 1973’s “Paper Moon,” appearing alongside her father, actor Ryan O’Neal. The following year, at 10, she became the youngest person to win a competitive Academy Award, taking home the best supporting actress prize.
In her acceptance speech, she thanked director Peter Bogdanovich and her father. Their relationship later became strained. In her 2004 memoir, “A Paper Life,” O’Neal wrote that tensions grew after “Paper Moon,” alleging her father was jealous of her success. She also accused him of physical and emotional abuse and said he struggled with drug addiction.
Ryan O’Neal died in December 2023 at age 82 from congestive heart failure. Tatum later said she was left out of his will and learned of the decision only after his death. In a 2025 interview, she said she had written honestly about their relationship in her memoir.
