Tatum O’Neal opened up about going through a severe stroke after a drug overdose in May 2020 in a new interview with People, published on Wednesday, July 5. The actress, 59, revealed that she “almost died,” but is now putting her focus on recovery and sobriety. Tatum admitted that it was a “miracle” that she survived. “I woke up in a coma without any words, without anything. I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know what to do, and I had no words at all. Nothing,” she told the magazine. “Nobody could figure out what was going to go on: if I was going to die or if I was going to live.”
Her son Kevin McEnroe revealed that she underwent cardiac arrest and a series of seizures following her overdose. Kevin said that his mother “had become very isolated,” and it only got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. He revealed that he and his siblings Sean and Emily feared their mother may not have been able to speak or may have lost sight or hearing as she recovered. Tatum revealed she’s still having trouble reading and writing.
Tatum said she’s “slowly but surely getting better,” and she tries to just live in the moment. “I just take it a day at a time, and I try not to go to the past and try not to go too much in the future and just try to take it a day at a time, because I have been through a lot in my life,” she said.
Ultimately, the Oscar winner said she’s been very committed to recovery and often attends 12-step meetings on Zoom. “To be sober is the part about going forward and not back. I don’t want to drink anymore, and I don’t want to use anymore. I’m doing much better about that, and I’m doing so many meetings,” she explained. “I’m totally trying to get better.”
Tatum also opened up about how she struggled with addiction for much of her life, and she had been trying to get sober for her “whole life.” Her son Kevin admitted that she’s done a great job in “embracing” sobriety since her 2020 overdose.