Tatum O'Neal Reveals Years Of Sex Abuse As A Child Star
Tatum O’Neal has revealed that she was sexually assaulted multiple times as a child star.
The actress, now 54, who was the youngest Oscar winner ever at age 10, tragically wrote in an emotional caption on Instagram, "I suffered years of abuse, both emotional and sexual." O'Neal, the daughter of famed actor Ryan and former wife of tennis star John McEnroe, wrote in her post along with a photo of herself as a child, "I am a woman and I have been sexually assaulted more than once.
"It was not my fault when I was 5, 6, 12, 13, 15 – all by older men who I thought were safe.
"I rarely have known safety and was always blamed for the assaults and my loudness and curiosity. It’s taken me almost 55 years to know how to advocate for myself.
"Whether it was 35 years ago to a 75-year-old man at 15, I remember everything," O'Neal said. O'Neal shocked viewers of the Academy Awards years ago for winning the best supporting actress prize for the 1973 movie, Paper Moon.
But now, she has disclosed the huge cost of being an adorable child in the industry.
In a recent interview with Britain's The Mail on Sunday, O’Neal also said she'd grown up "before my time."
According to O'Neal, she alleged that both her mother, the late actress Joanna Moore, and her father Ryan struggled with alcoholism and addiction, adding, "When your parents are off getting drunk or high, they are not watching what happens to their children.
O'Neal claimed she was once assaulted by a friend of her father’s and also, her mom's boyfriend tried to rape her. The star has spoken about overcoming her own addiction.
In her weekend social media post, after exposing her #MeToo story, O’Neal also slammed President Donald Trump for mocking Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Ford had accused Judge Brett Kavanaugh of assault, but he was controversially confirmed to the Supreme Court
in a narrow Senate vote yesterday, Saturday, October 6.
Before the confirmation, President Trump, who had nominated Kavanaugh to the highest court in the land, had blasted Ford for not being able to remember exactly when the alleged assault took place.
"To see the President of the US mock a woman, let alone a sexual assault victim, we’ve sunk to a depth of depravity that I never thought the President of the United States could ever sink to," O’Neal wrote on Instagram.
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