Who Are Ryan O’Neal’s Children?

Ryan O’Neal’s first marriage to fellow actor Joanna Moore resulted in his two oldest children, Tatum and Griffin O’Neal. Their relationship was a blueprint for Ryan’s future romances: turbulent, troubled, and chaotic. People notes that after the couple split, Ryan was awarded custody of Tatum and Griffin due to Moore’s struggles with substance abuse disorder. Given Ryan’s own well-documented addiction battle, it resulted in a troubled childhood for the two youngsters.

Tatum was a celebrated child actor. She starred alongside Ryan in 1973’s “Paper Moon,” which resulted in her becoming the youngest-ever Academy Award winner when she took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at age 10. Griffin also followed in his parents’ acting footsteps. Although he never reached his sister’s career highs, he starred in “The Children of Times Square,” “April Fools Day,” and “Hadley’s Rebellion,” among other projects.

Sadly, both children also struggled with substance abuse disorder and had chaotic, violent upbringings. “My father gave me cocaine when I was 11 and insisted I take it,” Griffin told Vanity Fair in 2009. “He was violent all the way through my upbringing. He was a very abusive, narcissistic psychopath.” Ryan shot a gun at Griffin during Farrah Fawcett’s 60th birthday party. “I could have hit him, but I missed,” he told journalist Leslie Bennetts. Meanwhile, Tatum told ABC’s “Nightline” that her childhood was “very toxic” and that she was using drugs and alcohol by the time she was a teen.