Tatum O’Neal’s son, Kevin McEnroe, is opening up about the actress’s past drug abuse six years after she suffered a massive stroke caused by a prescription drug overdose.
During a recent interview with PEOPLE, McEnroe recalled his sister Emily calling him about their mother’s medical emergency in May 2020.
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“She’d had a stroke and was in a coma and might not make it,” he recounted the conversation. “She had overdosed again.”
The Oscar-winning actress’s eldest son, whom she shares with ex, tennis pro John McEnroe, also had his own share of addiction struggles over the years. “
After their parents split in 1992, he and his siblings, Sean and Emily, would go between O’Neal and McEnroe’s homes until the actress was forced to relinquish custody in 1998 due to her drug addiction.
“My entire life it felt like there was this unbelievable chasm between how she presented — the Hollywood actress — and who she actually was,” McEnroe said about his mother. “She would leave often in the middle of the night, try to get back before we were awake, but sometimes we would wake up, and she wasn’t there, and that’s pretty scary.”
McEnroe pointed out that he had a “deep feeling” that if his mom lost him and his siblings, she would have died.
His own addiction struggles began when he started drinking in high school. He then first tried painkillers in college. “For the first time in my life I was comfortable, and that very loud negative voice in my head was suddenly quiet.”
Despite his drug use, McEnroe developed a talent for writing.
In July 2014, McEnroe was arrested on drug possession charges. He was ordered by a judge to choose between treatment and jail, and he went with rehab.
After 120 days of sobriety, McEnroe got a drink. He then spent the next five to six years nearly drinking himself to death. Amid his addiction struggles, he developed pancreatitis.
Following his second pancreatitis treatment, McEnroe’s dealer offered him heroin.
“And now I am using heroin like my mom did,” he recounted. “Xanax, vodka, and heroin. My dad would try to visit. I would cancel. One day he just showed up. There were bottles of alcohol everywhere. He looked around with a tear in his eye. He told me to stand up. I remember, because I couldn’t stand up. He gave me a hug and told me he loved me.”
In late 2019, he experienced liver failure and was told he would need a transplant. Amid his own medical struggles and continuous addiction, his mom had her stroke. His sister, Emily, who was newly sober, told him to become the actress’s medical proxy, which meant he made difficult decisions regarding her medical care.
“The lengths to which I’d gone allowed me to understand my mother’s disease, which led to true forgiveness,” McEnroe noted. “The fact that we’re both such bad alcoholics makes us closer, because she can be honest with me. There is no shame.”
While his mother was going through treatment and recovery, McEnroe started writing again. He would document the actress’s medical journey on his Substack.
“He has brutal honesty, which is beautiful,” O’Neal stated. “I’m so proud.”
O’Neal has since recovered from her stroke. She is also two years sober.
Elsewhere in the interview, McEnroe said stepping in to help his mother made him see he could become a “better man.”
“I started sharing openly about the past and taking care of her and loving her through all of it,” he said. “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.”
McEnroe further shared, “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.
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