The O’Neal family – how not to bring up kids

Redemption is not a gift granted to all or easily acquired. Tatum O’Neal, John McEnroe’s first wife, like her siblings has had a lifelong battle against her demons with no resounding victory at the end of it all. Her mother actress Joanna Moore lost custody of Tatum and Griffin her brother to their father Ryan O’Neal, due to her alcohol and drug problems. Which repeated one generation later as Tatum had her three children moved to John McEnroe’s custody because of her heroin addiction.

  This is a complicated family psycho-drama of only the sort that Hollywood could brew up. The grand patriarch is actor Ryan O’Neal, who was estranged from his three adult children for decades. He married Joanna Moore and had Tatum, who won an Academy Award at 9 for Paper Moon; and Griffin who has said his struggles with addiction began when he was 9 years old. He told People magazine, “My life has been a reign of drug and alcohol degradation. I had to self-medicate my entire life because there was pain everywhere. There were drugs everywhere in my family all day, every day.” His family’s problems stemmed from his father who gave him cocaine at the age of 11. “He was a very abusive, narcissistic psychopath. He gets so mad he can’t control anything he’s doing,” O’Neal said.

  Ryan O’Neal skipped through another marriage with child, and went on to a third and very tempestuous marriage with Farrah Fawcett, producing Redmond O’Neal, who has had a history with law enforcement on drugs, firearms and robbery charges and had a prison stint.

  A gigantic shipwreck doesn’t begin to cover the damage done.

  There are too many charts to cover in detail so I’ll pick salient points. Ryan O’Neal, 20 April 1941 9.34 am LA, is a control-freak, ultra-stubborn, indulgent and charming Sun Venus in Taurus square Pluto with Pluto widely opposition an 8^th house Mars in Aquarius. His Mars in in a short-fused square to Saturn which is conjunct an adventurous Jupiter Uranus in Taurus. 6 planets in Fixed signs – unbudgeable.

Joanna Moore, 10 November 1934, no birth time, his first wife was a charming Sun Venus in Scorpio square Saturn in Aquarius which would be a bulldozer meets brick wall relationship given his Taurus ++ chart.

 Tatum, 5 November 1963 3.38am LA, Joanna/Ryan’s daughter, is a Sun Scorpio like her mother conjunct Neptune with Venus also in Scorpio and Saturn in Aquarius. They are oddly similar given that Joanna had a Pluto square Uranus and Tatum a Uranus conjunct Pluto. Their relationship chart has a possessive and affectionate Venus Sun square Pluto and a chained-together Saturn opposition Pluto. She was still having brushes with the law over drugs a few years back.

  Griffin, Tatum’s brother, 28 October 1964 9.01pm LA, another Sun Scorpio with Mercury Neptune in Scorpio has a Fixed Grand Cross of Moon Mars in Leo opposition Saturn in Aquarius  square Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune. Another tank meets an immoveable object type relationship with his ultra-Fixed father. Neither would give way. There was a shooting incident between them in 2007.

  Farrah Fawcett, 2 February 1947 3.10pm Corpus Christi, Texas, Ryan wife number three, had an 8^th house Sun, Mercury, Mars in Aquarius opposition Pluto with Pluto conjunct Saturn in Leo. Whatever possessed that pair to get married is anyone’s guess – volatile wouldn’t begin to describe it though they did reconcile during her last illness. But the wreckage of their marriage left poor Redmond, 30 January 1985 2.55am LA, trying to cope with the fallout. He is a Sun Aquarius square Pluto (controlling father) with a Mars Venus conjunction in Pisces trine Saturn in Scorpio sextile Jupiter in Capricorn, with his Saturn opposition a Taurus Moon (chilly mother).

  Surveying all the charts and relationship charts what is intriguing are two things. One is the mix of affection and aggravation. The other is strong Jupiters throughout.  Tatum’s birth chart has Jupiter on the point of a Yod which can lead to delusions of grandeur. Griffin has his Jupiter in indulgent Taurus on one leg of his Grand Square. Redmond has an emphasised Jupiter as well.

  Too much Jupiter can be as damaging as too much Neptune.  None of the O’Neal kids appear to have done a John McEnroe and emerged in any kind of fit shape.