Tatum O’Neal Gets Candid About Overdose & Near-Death Experience

59-year-old actress Tatum O’Neal is being candid about her struggles. In May 2020, O’Neal overdosed on drugs and suffered from cardiac arrest, seizures, and a severe stroke. All of these medical issues led her to a six-week coma, with her family unsure if she would survive. If she did survive, they feared that she would never walk or speak again. Luckily, she was able to make a full recovery and regained not only her memory but her ability to walk, read, and write.

Now, she’s sharing her story in a series of interviews also featuring her children with ex-husband John McEnroe. On that tragic day in 2020, O’Neal overdosed on a combination of opiates and morphine after a tough couple of years. Her oldest son Kevin shared, “She had become very isolated. With the addition of morphine and heavier pharmaceuticals, it was getting scary. COVID, chronic pain, all these things led to a place of isolation. In that place, I don’t think, for her, there was much hope.”