The “Paper Moon” actress suffered a stroke back in 2020.The “Paper Moon” actress suffered a stroke back in 2020.
Tatum O’Neal knows she can always lean on her family.
The Oscar winner, 62, emerged in a rare public appearance on Saturday, walking with the assistance of a cane alongside her daughter Emily McEnroe and son-in-law Tim Massarelli, in photos obtained by Page Six.
O’Neal wore a classic black midi dress and navy blue suit jacket for the outing, accessorizing with a long necklace, black loafers and a pair of glasses.
She appeared to be in good spirits as she chatted with the people who accompanied her.
The outing comes just days after she took to Instagram to share a rare selfie with fans. In the pic, she smiled while surrounded by what appeared to be family photos in the background.
“Hope ❤️” the celebrated actress captioned the snapshot, adding a red heart emoji to the upload.
The sightings come amid O’Neal’s lengthy recovery from a stroke.
In 2023, the “Paper Moon” actress revealed that an overdose on “a combination of pain medication, opiates, and morphine” back in 2020 led to a six-week coma and a near-fatal stroke.
“I almost died,” O’Neal told People, confessing she’d been an “addict [her] whole life, pretty much on and off, for the past 30 to 40 years.”
O’Neal’s son Kevin McEnroe, 40, told the outlet that he worried she wouldn’t survive. “It was the phone call we’d always been waiting for,” he said, referencing siblings Sean, 39, and and Emily, 35, whom O’Neal shares with ex-husband John McEnroe.
“She also had a cardiac arrest and a number of seizures,” Kevin added. “There were times we didn’t think she was going to survive.”
O’Neal — who rose to fame alongside her father Ryan O’Neal in 1973’s “Paper Moon” — divulged that following the 2020 medical incident, she’d been working on regaining strength and memory, as well as re-learning to read and write, in rehab facilities.
O’Neal told the outlet she’d “been through a lot,” having abused pain medication at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She’d been prescribed the meds for rheumatoid arthritis and back and neck pain, she explained.
The mother of three was found by a pal in her home in Century City, Los Angeles, following the overdose and taken to a local hospital.
O’Neal was subsequently diagnosed with aphasia.
Kevin told People that his mother “had become very isolated” and that amid the pandemic, he didn’t think “there was much hope” for her.
Kevin called his mother’s efforts to recover after years of addiction a “miracle.”
“This last chapter where she wants to live, wants to get sober, wants to learn, I think it’s a miracle,” he told the outlet.
“I think it’s beautiful. I’ve never been more proud to be her son. She’s full of love and full of heart … it’s a miracle to behold.”
The actress took home the Academy Award for best supporting actress in 1974 for her role in “Paper Moon,” at the age of 10, becoming the youngest person to ever win a competitive Oscar — a record which still stands.
