Tatum O’Neal, daughter to the late star Ryan O’Neal, was moved to tears Saturday during her father’s celebration of life ceremony at the DGA Theatre Complex in L.A.
“It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. I sure love my dad,” O’Neal, 60, told Entertainment Tonight. “I actually cried this morning, which is rare, you know.”
“I had actually stopped crying throughout my life, and I cried this morning really hard,” continued the “Bad News Bears” star. “It was beautiful. I love my dad, always.”
O’Neal, who starred opposite her father in the 1973 film “Paper Moons,” told the outlet that getting a chance to work with her father was “fantastic.”
When asked by ET what she would say to him now, O’Neal responded with: “I love you, daddy. I always have, and I always will.”
She added: “You meant the world to me.”
Ryan died last month from congestive heart failure after reportedly suffering through “cardiomyopathy” for years. He was 82.
“So this is the toughest thing I’ve ever had to say but here we go. My dad passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side supporting him and loving him as he would us,” Patrick, Ryan’s middle son, wrote on Instagram confirming his father’s death at the time.
“My father Ryan O’Neal has always been my hero. I looked up to him and he was always bigger than life,” Patrick continued. “As a human being, my father was as generous as they come. And the funniest person in any room. And the most handsome clearly, but also the most charming. Lethal combo.”
“He loved to make people laugh. It’s pretty much his goal. Didn’t matter the situation, if there was a joke to be found, he nailed it. He really wanted us laughing. And we did all laugh. Every time. We had fun. Fun in the sun,” the statement continued. “As my father, he was second to none. The best and most loving and supportive dad, and I am just so lucky to have had him.”
“We loved playing/watching sports together. Some great frisbee throws on the beach that would last all weekend long. For years. That was our bond,” Patrick concluded.
Tatum, for her part, also broke her silence on Dec. 8.
“I feel great sorrow with my father’s passing,” Tatum told 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.”
The pair had a rocky relationship over the years, which began when Tatum won an Oscar for their film “Paper Moon.”
“He loved me, but then hated me because I won the Academy Award,” Tatum told the Hollywood Reporter in July 2023. “Weird s–t happened. It kind of went in the wrong direction to happiness.”
It wouldn’t be until Tatum suffered a massive stroke from a prescription drug overdose in 2020 that she would attempt to connect with Ryan.
The “Love Story” star was buried next to his longtime love Farrah Fawcett at the Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery in L.A.
The funeral was an intimate affair, with reportedly only about 25 people in attendance, including ex-wife Leigh Taylor-Young, whom he was married to from 1967-74; their son Patrick, 56, and Fawcett’s best friend, Alana Stewart, 78.
Ryan is survived by four children — Tatum, Griffin, Patrick, and Redmond O’Neal — and five grandchildren.
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