Tatum O'Neal's son is opening up about the Oscar-winning actress' battle with addiction in an emotional, empathetic essay for Mother's Day.
Kevin McEnroe, whose parents are O'Neal and tennis player John McEnroe, published a vulnerable essay for The Small Bow on May 7 written in the form of a letter to his mom. In the piece, he said the "Paper Moon" star, 62, wasn't "always a mom" to him, and he described how difficult it was watching her deal with drug addiction. But he ultimately concluded by offering love and forgiveness.
McEnroe wrote to O'Neal that when he was a kid, "you were my mom, until your boyfriend gave you heroin," adding that she used to "leave in the middle of the night and sometimes not come back before morning."
'I almost died': Tatum O'Neal opens up about her 2020 overdose, stroke, recovery
"I don't care that one of my earliest memories was you sending me to buy your cigarettes, or that I used to throw away your drugs," he wrote. "I don't care that when I found a mirror, once, on your bathroom counter, your answer was I can do a line, if I want. ... I don't care that you had an overdose, again, which led to a stroke, and brain damage, and then tried to escape from the memory care facility, and then you drank. In a weird way I'm proud of you for that. That's when I knew you were still alive."
