Tatum O’Neal Reveals Near-Fatal Drug Overdose, Stroke, 6-Week Coma

Tatum O’Neal is opening up for the first time about her May 2020 drug overdose, which led to a severe stroke and six-week coma. The Oscar-winning actress, 59, and her family shared her story in an interview with PEOPLE published July 5, revealing she “almost died” after also suffering cardiac arrest and a number of seizures.

Kevin McEnroe, 37, who is the oldest of O’Neal’s three kids with ex-husband and tennis legend John McEnroe, said the call about his mother’s overdose was the “phone call we’d always been waiting for” amid his mother’s lifelong struggle with addiction. The Paper Moon actress was struggling during the early days of the COVID pandemic, abusing prescription medications, some of which she had been prescribed for her back and neck pain as well as her rheumatoid arthritis. 

On the day she overdosed, O’Neal had combined pain medication, opiates and morphine, and was found by a friend in her apartment before being rushed to the hospital. As his mother regained consciousness following her six-week coma, Kevin and his siblings, Sean, 35, and Emily, 32, feared she would never walk or speak again, as she had been diagnosed with aphasia “and had damage to her right frontal cortex.”

“At times, it was touch and go,” Kevin said. “I had to call my brother and sister and say she was thought to be blind, deaf and potentially might never speak again.” Over the next two years, O’Neal worked to regain her speech and memory, although it’s an ongoing process. Kevin told the outlet, “Emotionally the things that made my mom want to take drugs in the first place, those things are still very present.” 

The Bad News Bears actress is also attending daily therapy and twelve-step meetings under the care of a physician. “I’ve been trying to get sober my whole life,” said O’Neal. “Every day, I am trying.” Her son Kevin added, “She is learning to be with herself and find some love for herself. It’s been hard but it’s been beautiful and it’s a miracle to behold.” He continued, “All I ask her every day is just to try. I think we’re both really lucky to have gotten this chance.”