The dark truth behind this history-making photo of the youngest ever Oscar recipient, actress Tatum O'Neal

A young Tatum O'Neal was on the fast track - to this day, she remains the youngest Oscar winner in history after being awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1974, for her debut role starring alongside her late father, '80s icon Ryan O'Neal, in Paper Moon (1973).

But the Oscar nomination had a dark truth simmering just underneath the surface. Tatum claimed that her father was so jealous that she received a nomination and he didn't that he refused to accompany her to the ceremony, deciding to instead stay in England where he was filming and send his daughter back home alone.

"Returning to the States for the ceremony – alone, shaky and sad – I felt like Little Orphan Annie," O'Neal wrote in her in her 2004 memoir A Paper Life.

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Tatum O'Neal holds the Oscar she won for working alongside her father in the movie Paper Moon. (Bettmann Archive)

It looked like anything but to onlookers, who marveled at the 10-year-old's achievement as she adorably posed next to the enormous statues.

She recalled, "I must have looked very vulnerable and small... You'd think an Oscar nomination would be an indelible moment, a victory to cherish and savour for a lifetime."

"But for me it must have been a trauma instead of a triumph."

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Following the career high that remained just that - a high - her life was unfortunately troubled by addiction issues and poor family relationships that continue to this day.

Though they were revered for their chemistry in Paper Moon, Tatum did not share a good relationship with her father for most of her life. From a young age, her father and late mother, actress Joanna Moore, exposed the young girl to the dark side of Hollywood, even admitting she began the use of cocaine at age 15.

Though she tried to maintain the momentum of her Oscar win, starring in The Bad News Bears (1976), International Velvet (1978), Little Darlings (1980), and more, by the mid '80s, roles for her dried up and she turned to more drug use to cope with her failing career.

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Tatum and Ryan O'Neal in Paper Moon. (The Directors Company)

In the meantime she had met tennis player John McEnroe, marrying him in 1986 and having three children with him, Kevin, Sean and Emily. However, the pair were ultimately incompatible, separating in 1992 and divorcing in 1994. Following the divorce, O'Neal's drug problems came to a head and McEnroe was given custody of their children. 

This was just the wake-up call O'Neal needed and she worked hard at sobriety for the sake of her children, winning back partial custody of them and also finding her way back to Hollywood.

She began the 2000s with a number of guest roles on shows such as Sex and the City (2003), 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter (2004), and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2004), before gaining some stability with a permanent role in the firehouse drama Rescue Me (2005).

She continued on to more roles in Wicked Wicked Games (2006), The Runaways (2010), God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness (2018), with her latest role in 2021 being Not to Forget.

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Tatum O'Neal and father Ryan O'Neal reconciled before his death in 2023. (Instagram)

In 2011, she got the chance to face one of her biggest traumas head-on - her damaged relationship with her father. Oprah Winfrey helped the father and daughter reconcile in a documentary series titled Ryan and Tatum: The O'Neals.

Though they didn't do so immediately, they regularly appeared at events together and posted pictures on social media before his death on December 8, 2023.

"I feel great sorrow with my father's passing," the 60-year-old said hours after her father's passing in a statement to People.

"He meant the world to me. I loved him very much and know he loved me too. I'll miss him forever and I feel very lucky that we ended on such good terms."

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Tatum O'Neal continued to work in entertianment. (Getty Images for Pure Flix Enter)

Tatum admits to her drug problems, but one near-fatal turn in 2020 made her come to her senses.

"I was an addict my whole life," she told People recently, "[It's been] pretty much on and off, for the past 30 to 40 years." 

In May of 2020, the Oscar winner overdosed and "almost died" after suffering a severe stroke and cardiac arrest, before being induced into a six-week coma. After she woke from it, she could no longer speak or communicate. She had to re-learn how to read and write, with her memory and vocabulary, though regained, still impaired.

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Tatum O'Neal says "Every day, I am trying." (Instagram)

For her children, this incident was one "we'd always been waiting for… There were times we didn't think she was going to survive," her son Kevin, now 37, told People.

Five years on from the ordeal, he said his mother is trying hard to recover. 

"This last chapter where she wants to live, wants to get sober, wants to learn, I think it's a miracle. I think it's beautiful.

"I've never been more proud to be her son. She's full of love and full of heart."

The actress reiterated her son's hope: "I've been trying to get sober my whole life," she said, "Every day, I am trying."

If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Alcohol and Other Drug hotline on 1800 250 015 or call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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