My years of sex abuse: Actress Tatum O’Neal, 54, on how she was 'assaulted multiple times as a child star'
- Tatum O’Neal, 54, talked about the abuse she suffered with The Mail on Sunday
- In the interview she said: 'I suffered years of abuse, both emotional and sexual’
- The actress was the youngest person to win an Oscar aged ten in Paper Moon
Actress Tatum O’Neal has said she was sexually assaulted multiple times as a child star.
O’Neal, 54, who became the youngest person to win an Oscar aged ten playing opposite her father Ryan O’Neal in the 1973 classic Paper Moon, said all the assaults were by older men who she thought ‘were safe’.
In an emotional letter posted on Instagram, the mother-of-three – who was once married to tennis great John McEnroe – said: ‘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.
Tatum O’Neal (pictured right as a child with father Ryan O'Neal), 54, has opened up about being sexually assaulted multiple times as a child star. The mother-of-three posted an emotional letter posted on Instagram about being assaulted more than once
‘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.’
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In a recent interview with The Mail on Sunday, O’Neal talked about the abuse she suffered growing up ‘before my time’.
She said both her mother, the late actress Joanna Moore, and her father struggled with alcoholism and addiction, adding: ‘When your parents are off getting drunk or high, they are not watching what happens to their children.
She said: 'It was not my fault when I was 5, 6, 12, 13, 15 – all by older men who I thought were safe'
O’Neal was the youngest person to win an Oscar aged ten playing opposite her father Ryan O’Neal in the 1973 classic Paper Moon
'I suffered years of abuse, both emotional and sexual.’
She said she was once assaulted by a friend of her father’s, while on another occasion her mother’s boyfriend tried to rape her.
In the emotional social media post, O’Neal also slammed Donald Trump for mocking Professor Christine Blasey Ford, who says she was assaulted by Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh in high school.
Trump lambasted Dr 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 said.
The actress, who married McEnroe in 1986 and divorced eight years later, has confessed to a lifelong struggle with drugs and alcohol abuse.
She has also spoken about how she became addicted to heroin after her marriage broke down.
In her 2004 autobiography A Paper Life, O’Neal claimed she was molested by her father’s drug dealer aged 12 and by a family acquaintance at six years old.
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