Tatum O’Neal won a supporting actress Oscar when she was just 10 years old, starring opposite her father, Ryan O’Neal in the 1973 film Paper Moon — and 50 years later, when Ryan died in December 2023, Tatum learned she had been cut out of his will.
She was devastated at the time, the former child star told Variety in a story published Wednesday, February 26, but now, her perspective has changed.
“Keep it, motherf—er,” Tatum, 61, told the outlet.
Tatum’s defiant stance comes while she still manages the aftermath of a stroke brought on by an accidental drug overdose in 2020 that put her in a six-week coma. She still walks with a cane and says she still struggles with words, people and memories. According to her son, Kevin McEnroe, it’s a major improvement from the immediate aftermath, when a doctor asked him if Tatum would want to live “essentially as a vegetable.”
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Now, Kevin, 38, has his mom’s back. He called his late grandfather’s assets “blood money,” adding, “I think the best revenge is your own success.” (Tatum shares Kevin, as well as Sean, 37, and Emily, 33, with ex-husband John McEnroe.)
Tatum grew up with abusive parents She detailed her upbringing in her 2004 memoir, A Paper Life, in which she accused Ryan and her mom, Joanna Moore, of physical and emotional abuse. She also accused her mom’s ex-boyfriend of trying to rape her and her dad’s drug dealer of sexually assaulting her.
She believes the revelations in her book are what ultimately cut her out of the will.
“The first book that I wrote was just a f—ing honest book,” she said. “And that’s what got him.”
Asked before his death about her allegations, Ryan took issue with his daughter airing the family’s “laundry.”
Tatum O’Neal Honors Late Dad Ryan O’Neal After His Death at 82
“She wrote a book — bitch!” he said in a 2009 story for Vanity Fair. “How dare she throw our laundry in the street for money!”
Despite her upbringing, as well as her own struggles with addiction, Kevin said his mom “is full of love — and I think that that’s something that she was born with.”
Asked how that happened, she credited Kevin.
“I gave birth to my oldest son,” she said. “He was the most joyful, the most loving. And then both of us got into drugs, and that really changed us. And look at him now and look at me now. It’s just beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.”
Tatum added that she attends meetings over Zoom as a way to sustain her sobriety. Kevin said he is rooting for his mom to achieve a full year without drugs or alcohol.
“I’m not sure she’s ever felt the kind of peace that comes with that,” he said.
