Farrah Fawcett’s twisted family secrets revealed by her stepchildren

Staring blankly across the courtroom, with devil-horn tattoos in his receding hairline, it was difficult to believe the defendant facing attempted murder charges was the son of Hollywood’s once most golden couple.

Redmond O’Neal, the only child of actor Ryan O’Neal and actress Farrah Fawcett, has been locked up at notorious Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, California, for five years, after allegedly going on a week-long crime spree in Santa Monica in 2018 and stabbing a series of random strangers.

One alleged victim said that Redmond, 41, ‘plunged a knife three and a half inches into his brain’. 

Now, Tatum O’Neal, 62, is breaking her silence on her unstable half-brother and their dysfunctional family. 

‘He’s doing very poorly, honey, very poorly,’ she said of her sibling in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail.

‘I love Red dearly, but he’s gotten heavy. He never even began a real life.’

Redmond O’Neal appeared in court in March for the May 2018 attempted murder charge

O’Neal is the only son of legendary actors Ryan O’Neal and Farrah Fawcett, pictured together at the premiere for the movie Malibu’s Most Wanted in 2003

‘He’s never changed. It was always drugs, drugs, drugs,’ she said. ‘It was a terrible beginning with my dad Ryan who wasn’t a very good person – and with Redmond he was mean and hurt him over and over.

‘It was horrifying and cruel.’

Tatum herself has been fighting her own demons for years as the daughter of the Love Story movie idol.

She spoke to the Daily Mail from the memory care facility in the San Fernando Valley where she is recovering from a massive prescription drug overdose-induced stroke in 2020.

Tatum, who won an Oscar at age 10 for co-starring with her father in the 1973 comedy-drama Paper Moon, has suffered from serious drug addiction for most of her adult life, even losing custody of her three children with tennis ace John McEnroe in the 90s.

And she had a dire warning about her sibling. 

Actress older sister Tatum O’Neal has broken her silence on her troubled brother, saying he’s doing ‘very poorly’, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail

Tatum has faced her own battles with addiction, and issued a stark warning about her half brother who accompanied her to a 2011 ceremony when they donated items linked to Farrah Fawcett to the Smithsonian Museum

Fawcett is pictured with her son in Vienna in 2001. The actress died on June 29, 2009, aged 62

‘I don’t know if he’s going to try to kill himself,’ she said.

But Redmond’s longtime lawyer, Dana Cole, disagrees, telling the Daily Mail his client is not suicidal and has improved since his early days at Patton.

‘He’s a different person today,’ Cole says. ‘He hasn’t been using drugs and he’s been on medication and has had regular therapy. He’s respectful.’

Ryan’s eldest son, Griffin, 61, also spoke to the Daily Mail about the troubled family.

‘We’re still alive, me and Tatum,’ Griffin told us.

‘But we shouldn’t be.’

Griffin himself has a lengthy rap sheet that dates back to 1986, when the boat he was piloting struck a towline and killed Francis Ford Coppola’s son Gian-Carlo.

Redmond, with devil horn tattoos now etched on his head, at the LA courthouse where he was arraigned on a second amended criminal complaint in connection to an alleged crime spree in May 2018

O’Neal entered the courtroom in shackles 

He later served prison time for a drunk driving crash and has faced domestic violence accusations.

He was not invited to his father’s funeral.

Indeed, most stories about the O’Neal family over the past 40 years have focused on Ryan himself and his failures as a father and husband.

In 1983, he punched Griffin in the face, knocking out two of his front teeth after an argument over a racquetball game in Bel Air.

Years later, Ryan was arrested after a fight at his Malibu home when he found that Griffin had chained Redmond down to keep him from going out to do drugs. 

Griffin began swinging a fireplace poker and Ryan fired a shot at the banister.

The 41-year-old has a history of legal and substance abuse issues. He is pictured in booking photos from 2008

In 2008, both father and son were arraigned in a Malibu court on a felony count of possession of methamphetamine

Griffin’s then-wife, Joanna Berry O’Neal, was injured in the melee.

The chaos extended well beyond that one incident. People close to the family say drug use was normalized in the home and attempts at recovery were often undermined. 

‘Ryan was a raging narcissist, really crazy,’ said David Leit, who became Redmond’s 12-step sponsor in 2001 when he was 16.

‘I liked Redmond. He could be funny and caring but he was also a punk, very angry with a real addict personality.’  

Two sources told the Daily Mail that Ryan pulled Redmond out of rehab programs early and allowed drug use in the house.

‘Redmond was used as a pawn,’ one family insider said. ‘Ryan was jealous of his own son.’

Tatum famously won an Oscar at the age of 10 for co-starring with her father in the 1973 comedy-drama Paper Moon

Tatum followed in her father’s footsteps with drug abuse, even losing custody of her three children with ex-husband John McEnroe in the 90s

In 2008, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies went to Ryan’s Malibu home to conduct a parole check on Redmond and found methamphetamine in Ryan’s bedroom drawer. 

Both father and son were arrested. Ryan later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and went to a treatment program.

Farrah Fawcett, long seen as the more stable parent, tried to stop what was happening to her son.

‘Farrah went to extraordinary means to protect him and get him on the right path,’ her former producing partner Craig Nevius said.

When Redmond was a teenager, she tracked down a man she believed was dealing him drugs, confronted him with boxcutters and went to the police.

She also insisted on searching his friends when they came over.

Tatum’s brother Griffin O’Neal also spoke out about the family’s chaotic past, telling the Daily Mail: ‘We’re still alive, me and Tatum. But we shouldn’t be’

Nothing worked.

Redmond’s drug use – and his acting out – only escalated.

By 2009, when Fawcett was dying of cancer, he was already in custody. 

He appeared at her bedside in shackles in the documentary Farrah’s Story, a moment friends said she would not have wanted made public.

Markus Farhan, a longtime producer at Access Hollywood, visited Redmond at the Twin Towers jail around that time.

‘When I met him he was just totally lost,’ Farhan said. ‘He had no identity. Everyone around him either wanted to sell him drugs or keep him on drugs.’

Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal were in a long-term, on-again-off-again relationship from 1979 to 1997. They are pictured with Redmond in 1995

Redmond has in the past blamed his parents, who never married during their turbulent 30-year relationship, for his problems.

Ryan died from leukemia in 2023 at the age of 82. 

Of his four children, only Patrick, a 58-year-old sportscaster, has survived untouched by the drama that engulfed the rest of the family.

Members of the next generation of the O’Neal family show signs of breaking the cycle.

Tatum’s daughter Emily, 34, is an actress and her son, Sean, 38, is married with two kids and has worked as a photographer.

Tatum’s older son, novelist Kevin McEnroe, 39, overcame a serious addiction to drugs and alcohol six years ago and got married last year. 

Despite a difficult childhood that he details in his Substack, Serenity Side Down, he and his mother are now close.

As for Redmond, he is facing one count of felony attempted murder, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and second-degree robbery for the alleged knifepoint holdup of a 7-Eleven.

If convicted on the attempted murder charge, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Tatum told us she is working on a Netflix documentary about her stroke and recovery and had a message for her half-brother.

‘I love you, Red,’ she said. ‘You are the most beautiful man and you are everything. I believe in you.’