Tatum O'Neal "almost died" from a drug overdose in May 2020.
O'Neal, who gained fame after winning an Oscar at the age of 10, overdosed on pain medication, opiates and morphine. The ordeal left her in a coma for six-weeks, and she was diagnosed with aphasia, which occurs from damage to the part of the brain that handles language.
"She also had a cardiac arrest and a number of seizures," her son Kevin McEnroe told People magazine. "There were times we didn't think she was going to survive."
O'Neal, the daughter of actor Ryan O'Neal, shares Kevin with her ex-husband John McEnroe. The actress and the tennis star also share two other children; Sean McEnroe and Emily McEnroe.
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Following her drug overdose in 2020, Kevin helped take care of his mother, noting that the COVID pandemic made things difficult for her.
"She had become very isolated," her son told the outlet. "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."
While she was in the coma, Kevin and his siblings were not sure exactly how things were going to go.
"At times, it was touch and go," he explained. "I had to call my brother and sister and say she was thought to be blind, deaf and potentially might never speak again."
Once O'Neal came out of the coma, she could not speak. The "Paper Moon" actress "didn’t know where she was," her son recalled. "She couldn’t say, ‘I'm scared.’"
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"The Runaways" star is now working on her sobriety. She has been in and out of rehab, working with a therapist and attending 12-step meetings.
"I’ve been trying to get sober my whole life," O'Neal explained to the outlet. "Every day, I am trying."
"I was an addict my whole life, pretty much on and off, for the past 30 to 40 years."
O'Neal shot to stardom at a young age. The actress is the youngest person to ever win an Academy Award, winning for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Addie Loggins in "Paper Moon" at 10 years old.
Her wild success was tainted by a 2008 drug arrest. She was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance after a police officer watched her buy the drugs in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood.
"Just when I was about to change that and wreck my life, the cops came and saved me," O'Neal previously told the New York Post in 2015.
O'Neal is also known for her roles in "The Bad News Bears" and "Little Darlings."
