On the 8th of December, the legendary actor, Ryan O’Neal passed away, as it was announced by his son, Patrick.
He had four children. But the relationship he had with his children is not the best father and child relationship, since some had difficult lives than the other siblings.
His daughter, Tatum was born in 1963, from his first wife, Joanna Moore. She also has a brother, Griffin, who was born in 1964.
Ryan and Joanna was separated in 1967.
As Tatum and Griffin lived with their mother, their lives were not that great. They suffered starving, as some days, the siblings had no food at home. Also, his daughter Tatum had experienced beatings, from the 15-year-old lover of her mother, Joanna.
Tatum stated, “I lived a hard time. There was, you know, tremendous beatings and no food,”
“My teeth were rotting. Like, that was really happening, and I was suffering,”
Then Ryan came to the rescue, and saved his daughter from that life, as they acted together in the Paper Moon. She received an Oscar with her performance in the movie, as she was only eight years old.
After her successful start at her career, she kept struggling. Tatum revealed that at the age of 13, she had tried to take her own life, twice. The relationship with her father had some damage too.
At her teen years, she stated that her father was confused with her. She said, “I started to not know where to turn,”
As she grew, she believed that her father was jealous of her, since she had an Oscar, while her father didn’t. She also had suffered from drug addiction too, as she recovered with a 12-step program.
As time passed, the father and the daughter had made peace, as they apologized from each other. Tatum stated, “He’s all I have in terms of family, and I needed him in my life. My dad was absolutely everything to me,”
After Farrah Fawcett’s passing, Tatum and her father had another level in their relationship, as their connection went deeper.
Ryan stated, “A lot of harsh things were done. But now, we’re starting over and not looking back,” after Fawcett’s passing.
“I’ll miss him forever, and I feel very lucky that we ended on such good terms,” Tatum said.
Her brother, Griffin also had a stormy life as with his sister. He lived as he tried to stay away from the chaos of his family. He was a small boy, when he met with drugs. As he saw his mother and sister were abusing themselves with it, he joined to them too.
As he called himself, he was the “joint roller” of the family.
“I was basically an alcoholic, but I did every drug on the planet. I had problems with cocaine and speed, too,” Griffin said.
As he spent a lot of time in rehabs, he had already went three of them when he was graduated from high school. Everytime, his addiction came out stronger than before.
He was clean for three and a half years in 2015. As he left Los Angeles to live in a smaller town in 2007, their relationship with his father went weaker too.
He was no more than 16, when his father, allegedly, punched him on the face, which Ryan was even arrested for assault. In 2015 it was revealed that they hadn’t spoken to each other for nine years.
From Lee Taylor-Young, Ryan had his second son, Patrick. But they didn’t stayed together for long with Lee.
Patrick had a career as an actor too, and he appeared in “Die Hard,” “Wild Dog” and “Bliss.” But soon, he decided to end his career, after he was declined from a show.
As he tried producing, he later became a broadcaster. As he loved sports, and watching ESPN on TV when he was a child, he changed his career into that area, from acting.
Patrick and his father, Ryan, had a closer relationship with Griffin. Patrick had received Ryan’s support, and parenting.
Even, he talked about Ryan as in his tribute, “My father, Ryan O’Neal, has always been my hero. I looked up to him, and he was always bigger than life,”
From the love of his life, Farrah Fawcett, Ryan had his third son, Redmond. He was born in 1985.
Redmond, too was struggling with his drug problem, like his half-sister and half-brother did. Tatum, his half-sister stated, “I love him, but I have never seen a more scary side of addiction.”
Ryan was worried about Redmond’s addiction too. He stated that his son’s addictions prevented many good things in his way.
As Redmond visited 13 different rehab centers, Ryan said about his son, “He’s had a terrible life,”
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