Behind Tatum O’Neal’s fame in the spotlight, she was battling drug and alcohol abuse, as her son has opened up about his childhood amid his own journey to recovery.
Speaking with PEOPLE, Kevin McEnroe details his upbringing and his mother’s addiction to drugs, which began at an early age. Many know O’Neal for winning an Oscar for Paper Moon at only 10 years old, with her exposure to chaotic Hollywood leading her down a dark path.
In 2020, O’Neal made headlines when it was reported that she suffered a stroke and was in a coma. At that time, McEnroe had been in a drug rehab facility after years of battling his own drug addiction. His mother’s stroke and overdose pushed McEnroe to begin airing out their struggles on his Substack newsletter, Serenity Side Down.
“She’d had a stroke and was in a coma and might not make it,” Kevin recalls. “She had overdosed again. I spent the next month fielding calls about her progress — checking if she’s alive. I had to show up and be there for her. It was you need to do this, and I did.”
He reveals that in helping his mother with her addiction, he started to realize he could “be a better man.” McEnroe is now seven years sober and recalls how his mother had a drug problem for as long as he could remember. By posting online about his and her experience, he felt it was the only way to face the issue head-on.
“I started sharing openly about the past and taking care of her and loving her through all of it,” he says. “I realized that it wasn’t helping her or me to have this enormous amount of secrecy, and I just decided to let it rip.”
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While McEnroe saw the reality of his mother’s addiction, he commented that there was a “chasm” between the woman he knew and how his mother presented herself to the public. Her substance abuse became widespread public knowledge in 2004, but came to light over various public milestones.
“My entire life it felt like there was this unbelievable chasm between how she presented — the Hollywood actress — and who she actually was,” explained McEnroe.
Despite being a witness to his mother’s addiction, McEnroe felt he still needed to protect her. There was a feeling that “if she lost us, she would die.” He even recalls her sneaking out while they were asleep to get drugs.
In 1992, her heroin addiction led to her separation from tennis star John McEnroe and the loss of custody of her children. McEnroe started using alcohol and later began “using heroin as my mom did.”
In 2019, he was hospitalized on the verge of a liver transplant before recovering. He also became his mother’s medical proxy as she began to improve, and it “gave me this idea that people could change.”
“The lengths to which I’d gone allowed me to understand my mother’s disease, which led to true forgiveness,” he says. “The fact that we’re both such bad alcoholics makes us closer, because she can be honest with me. There is no shame.”
Recovering from her stroke and two years sober, O’Neal says she’s “proud” of her son, his recovery and what he’s written on Substack. She admits he “has brutal honesty, which is beautiful.”
Related: Eric Dane Revealed How His Breakup With a ‘Charmed’ Star Sent Writers Into a Frenzy
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