Kevin McEnroe is opening up about his struggles with addiction. For those unaware, Kevin is the oldest child of Oscar-winning actress Tatum O’Neal and tennis great John McEnroe. While Kevin is currently seven years sober, in his Substack newsletter, Serenity Side Down, he admitted that at one point he almost came close to dying.
Kevin McEnroe opens up about his struggles with addiction and nearly dying
Kevin McEnroe was 6 years old when his famous parents, Tatum O’Neal and John McEnroe, split. As a result of this, Kevin and his siblings, Sean and Emily, had to split their time between their mother and father, but owing to Tatum’s escalating drug use, she was forced to relinquish custody in 1998.
Kevin seemingly followed in his mom’s footsteps as he began drinking when he was just a high school student. He then tried painkillers for the first time in college. Kevin claimed that this was the first time in his life that he felt comfortable, and the “very loud negative voice” in his head suddenly went quiet. At the same time, Kevin, who is an author, found his passion for writing with some encouragement from his professor.
For the next six years, Kevin began writing fiction on the side while tending bars at night. He managed to land a book deal for his first novel, Our Town, in 2014. Recalling the time, Kevin said that he and his dad had dinner to celebrate. However, it became a night to remember for something entirely different. Kevin shared:
“He’s worried. I take that as [he’s] not excited for me. I storm off, go buy drugs, and get arrested the same day. I spent the night in jail. I’m on the cover of the New York Post: ‘McEnroe’s Dopey Son.’ A nightmare.”
Following the incident, a judge offered Kevin McEnroe the chance to choose between treatment for his addiction or spending time in jail. He chose rehab. He spent 120 days trying to get clean but gave in on day 121. He said, “On day 121, I got a drink. And for the next five, six years, I almost drank myself to death.”
Kevin eventually developed pancreatitis and went into treatment a second time. But no amount of treatment or even him almost dying stopped his addiction.
At one point, Kevin recalled that his dealer offered him heroin and he began using the drug “as [his] mom did.” In addition to this, he also got addicted to Xanax and vodka. His behavior made his father really worried. He wrote:
“My dad would try to visit. I would cancel. One day he just showed up. There were bottles of alcohol everywhere. He looked around with a tear in his eye. He told me to stand up. I remember, because I couldn’t stand up. He gave me a hug and told me he loved me.”
Kevin revealed that days went by until one day in October 2019, a girlfriend showed up and urged him to go to the hospital. He claimed that the fact that he listened to her and went is one of those things that is beyond his understanding. When he looks back at that time, Kevin said he would like to thank her, as he eventually spent a month in the hospital with liver failure. He added:
“They told me I’d probably need a transplant, and somehow I [stabilized] enough to go to treatment.”
Soon after this, Kevin’s mother, Tatum, had a stroke and he became her medical proxy. When she slowly began to improve, Kevin revealed that his sister, Emily, who was also newly sober at the time, gave him “this idea that people could change.” He realized that he too could get sober, and confessed that recovery brought his family closer in the best way possible.
What are your thoughts on Kevin McEnroe’s revelations?
Photo Credit: Kevin McEnroe, Today, Vogue
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