Actress Tatum O’Neal’s Near-Death Experience: Overdose, Stroke, and Recovery

Katie JerkovichJuly 5, 2023

Tatum O’Neal: From Overdose to Recovery

Hollywood star Tatum O’Neal, known for her struggles with drug addiction, recently shared her harrowing experience of suffering a stroke in 2020. The overdose that caused the stroke nearly took her life, but she has since embarked on a long path to recovery.

In a candid interview with the 59-year-old actress and her son, Kevin McEnroe, they discussed O’Neal’s progress several years after the overdose and stroke, which left her in a coma for six weeks.

“I almost died,” O’Neal revealed in an exclusive interview with People magazine.

McEnroe, O’Neal’s son with ex-husband and former tennis star John McEnroe, described the moment of the overdose as the phone call they had always feared.

“She also had a cardiac arrest and a number of seizures,” McEnroe shared. “There were times we didn’t think she was going to survive.”

Tatum O’Neal Reveals She Had A Near-Fatal Stroke: ‘I Overdosed and Almost Died’ (Exclusive) https://t.co/Fp7Bjz679C pic.twitter.com/P3DBOZzQ76

— People (@people) July 5, 2023

The isolation O’Neal experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with chronic pain, played a significant role in her overdose and subsequent stroke, according to her son.

“She had become very isolated,” McEnroe explained. “With the addition of morphine and stronger medications, it was becoming alarming. COVID, chronic pain, and other factors led her to a place of hopelessness.”

In May 2020, a friend discovered the Oscar winner in her Century City apartment after the overdose, and she was rushed to the hospital for treatment.

There, she was diagnosed with aphasia and suffered damage to her right frontal cortex, as revealed by McEnroe.

“At times, it was touch and go,” he added. “I had to call my brother and sister and inform them that she was thought to be blind, deaf, and might never speak again.”

“She didn’t know where she was,” McEnroe continued. “She couldn’t even express her fear.”

Over the past three years, O’Neal has been diligently working on regaining her strength, memory, and ability to read and write.

“I’ve been through a lot,” the resilient actress shared.

McEnroe acknowledged that his mother still has a long way to go in her recovery, as the emotional triggers that led her to substance abuse are still present.

“I’ve been trying to get sober my whole life,” the star of “Paper Moon” admitted. “Every day is a battle.”

O’Neal is a mother of three, sharing her children Kevin, Emily, and Sean with her ex-husband.

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