1977-1979 Tatum O’Neal

(Tatum was born on the 5th November, 1963. Michael the 29th August, 1958. She was 12 when they first met in 1975, he was 17. They started dating in 1977 when she was 13 and he was 18 and finished when she was around 16 and he was 20.)

On Their First Meeting At A Paul McCartney party in 1975, (Magic and Madness, Taraborelli, p. 195, '91 ed)


Michael and Tatum first met in 1975 at a party Paul McCartney hosted aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. At the time, he was seventeen and she was twelve. They had no contact with each other again until the spring of 1977, when Michael spotted Tatum with her father at the On the Rox club in Los Angeles.

The Michael Jackson Story 1977


The singer had been seen many times in the company of adolescent actress Tatum O’Neal. After the critical acclaim she received acting with her father Ryan in Paper Moon she was in the same position as Michael. Everywhere she went Tatum was the centre of attraction. Michael could empathize with the pressures of child stardom and found in her a kindred spirit.

In fact reports reached the press that the relationship had turned torrid at Hugh Hefner’s Los Angeles mansion and that they had taken a nude sauna bath together. “Well, I guess I am dating her in a way,” he explained. “I’ve taken her out a couple of times — or she’s taken me out — whatever. ‘I met her sometime back, when Paul McCartney gave a party on the Queen Mary boat. She was there and we talked a bit. Two years went by before I saw her again, which was at a club on Sunset Blvd called the Roxy. We talked and talked and talked. The next day she invited me to join her at Hugh Hefner’s house to watch Roots on videotape. She got sort of bored, so we went outside and got into the jacuzzi. We weren’t naked as people have said. We both had on bathing suits, just enjoying ourselves. And that’s it.”

Magic&Madness regarding their first few dates, p. 196, '91 ed


The next day, thirteen-year-old Tatum invited Michael to a dinner party at Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner’s rambling Holmby Hills estate, long a playpen for the chic Beverly Hills jet set. There they watched Roots, the highly rated Alex Haley television miniseries, on videotape. When Tatum became bored, she asked Michael to go into the hot tub with her.

“But I don’t have a bathing suit,” he said.

“Who needs bathing suits?” Tatum responded.

When Michael began to blush, Tatum asked one of Hefner’s assistants for two swimsuits, then handed one to Michael.

Tatum’s hair at this time was soft blond and flowed just below her shoulders. Her skin was baby pink and her figure quite ample for a girl who wouldn’t turn fourteen until close to the end of the year.

She was almost plump. “She’s like a sacred doll,” Michael said of her to a friend. He said that while soaking in the water and watching for shooting stars, the two shared secrets with one another.

Eventually, rumor has it they were nude together in the hot tub. The idea was tantalizing to the public, and the rumor persisted for months, fed by Tatum’s fast-life reputation.

“We weren’t naked,” Michael firmly pointed out in an interview, “as people have said. We both had on bathing suits, just enjoying ourselves. And that’s it. Why do people have to always find something dirty in everything?”

Todd Gold's book on their first few dates


He wasn’t used to being touched in a romantic way by pretty young ladies, and when Tatum’s gentle hand rested upon his, Michael’s heart melted.

On their first official date they went to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion, an enormous stone castle in Holmby Hills, with a reputation for being an orgiastic playground. Inside, the rooms were generally dark and full of leather furniture. The rambling backyard was home to Hef’s envious collection of exotic animals, not the least of which were the many shapely young women who regularly lounged topless poolside in all their pneumatic splendour.

Halfway through the movie they were watching, Tatum, then fifteen years old and light years ahead of Michael in sophistication, led her more innocent date outside for some fun and relaxation in the backyard. Discarding their clothes they slipped into the roiling hot tub. In recounting the incident, Michael says they had their swimming suits on, but mansion insiders say they were indeed skinny-dipping.

Consequently, the bare facts remain buried in a frothy sea of bubbles but Michael’s sexual preference seemed clear. “I can’t tell the details of that evening since I wasn’t there,” Marlon says, “But Michael definitely isn’t gay. He’s not as innocent as people think. When it came to girls in the early days, he and Jermaine were something to keep up with. Michael definitely isn’t a virgin.”

Michael telling Hilburn about Tatum, Hilburn, Cornflakes with John Lennon, p. 160


…when I asked [Michael] about supposed encounters with Tatum O’Neal, his eyes got big as he told me about the time at the Roxy that she had actually put her hand on his knee under the table.

Susan Blonde in Ron Galella's book about Michael and Tatum at The Roxy


“I introduced Michael to Tatum O’Neal at On the Rox in Hollywood. Her father Ryan flirted with me a little, so Tatum sat on Michael’s lap (she was still a kid, although she had won an Academy Award).”

Jacksons interview, Echoes, May 28th, 1977


Rumours of Michael’s love life abound. He’s been matched up to date with every under-seventeen year old from Jodie Foster to Stephanie Mills and Tatum O’Neal. Yes, he and Tatum have gone to a couple of parties, but they are strictly friends. Jackie kids that Linda Blair (of Exorcist film fame) is still ringing him up. Michael prefers to tip out quietly on his own. But he does ask after 14 year old Heather McCartney, who he met at the Wings party last year. “They have a house in Scotland. I thought they might be up there.”

Michael speaks about meeting Tatum in 1975, Rock Lives, August 23, 1977


“This was a year ago. I’ve got some pictures here of the party. It was a gigantic party at the Harold Lloyd estate. It was a very good evening. All the stars were there! [He pulls a voluminous black scrapbook off a nearby shelf and leafs through it.] Lemme see. This is when we met the Queen . . . This is at Paul’s party at Harold Lloyd’s estate, right around the time when Paul and his wife and I, were were talking about the Girlfriend song, and exchanging numbers and addresses.

“That was one of the greatest parties I’ve ever been to, because when Paul gives a party he believes in just going out! It was a whole schedule: nine o’clock, you get to see the ballerina act. Ten o’clock, Chuck Norris, the karate expert, put on a show. At four o’clock in the evening, the Broadway company of The Wiz would put on a show. There were all kinds of food! You want Mexican food, they had a Mexican stand, a Mexican lady. Italian, and Italian stand with an Italian man. American food, a buffet! Oh, man!

And that’s more at Paul McCartney’s party, where they had the Wiz show… And John Belushi doing his Joe Cocker imitation at Paul’s thing, too. Did you see the robot on summer TV specials? That was the same robot that was at Paul McCartney’s party! That was the first time I had seen it. I said, “How does he work?”

People went crazy over him. And that’s my friend Tatum O’Neal . . . And that’s my nephew on my brother’s side.

I left kinda early, but the party went on and on…”

Michael speaks about Tatum, London, Disco Dancing, 1978


He admits to often still being shy and embarrassed in front of girls.

“But I love them,” he says. “I’d love to meet the right girl and get married. But at the moment I can’t because there’s so many things I’ve got to do.”

Michael’s name has been recently linked with film star, Ryan O’Neal’s daughter, Tatum. But he says, “We’re really good friends. She’s helped me a lot with my acting.”

Interview with Michael by phone from California, August 3, 1978:
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/09/michael-jackson200909?currentPage=3


L.R. You’ve been seen out with Janelle Penny Commissiong, the former Miss Universe. Is it a romance?

M.J. [Laughter, giggling.] That’s a hard question to answer. Like most of the people you may see me out with, like Tatum [O’Neal] and Janelle, they’re kind of on and off, they’re friends, and [hysterical laughter] … I talk to them. I don’t know how to describe it, really [more laughter]. I don’t know what to say.

Michael says Tatum wants to take him camping, People Weekly, November 1978
http://www.the-michael-jackson-archives.com/mjtopofworld.html


They met at record producer Lou Adler’s private club, and she later took Michael on a date – he claims it was his first with anyone – to an open house at Hugh Hefner’s mansion. Yet Tatum has so far failed to persuade Michael to move up to Malibu to be near her. ”Girls,” he complains, ”want all your time.”

[..]

(Michael is) planning a three month tour with his brothers of, among other places, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and Singapore. (A new LP , Destiny, the first completely written and produced by the Jacksons, has just shipped gold.) At some point, though, Michael wants to fit in a pleasure trip with Tatum. “She wants to take me camping. I’ve never done any of those things,” he says wistfully. “I been knowin’ this business all my life so there’s no way of quittin’-but I am ready for a nice long vacation.”

Michael wanted to go with Tatum to the premiere of the Wiz, 24 Oct, 1978


Michael invites Tatum to be his date for The Wiz but she turns him down and he goes alone.

Michael attends Tatum O'Neal's Birthday Party, November 5 1978


At 5:43 on Tatum and Ryan’s 2011 show The O’Neal’s where Tatum talks about the craziest birthday she ever had at a dinner.





Tatum: But for 16, dad, we had a party and we invited a couple hundred people and a couple of thousand came.
Ryan: I remember 15 now…
Tatum: 16 or 15.
Ryan: Oh I have to sit down.
Tatum: Sit down now. So, I remember Brooke Shields came.
(Someone mentions Michael)
Tatum: Well, Michael was there. Michael was there. (Show a picture of her and Michael) And it was just the craziest birthday and I remember going ‘Where were you dad? Where were you?” You were at the beach house.’

Michael talks about Tatum, Jet Dec 14, 1978


Michael Jackson’s first date is still his current one – but he isn’t saying it goes beyond that.

Jackson, who is part of the box office success of the film version of The Wiz, still dates teen actress Tatum O’Neal, who he said was really excited for me when I was cast for (it).

“She helped me, too, with advice on how to stay cool through it all. She and her dad (actor Ryan O’Neal) have been just great for me,” he told a Philadelphia Daily News interviewer.

Tatum interview, The Beautiful Brat, 1978


“He doesn’t believe in birthdays or Christmas or Halloween or any of those things. It’s so strange because I’d like to send him a Christmas card and he says I mustn’t do it. Strange, no presents. I think that’s so weird. I love presents more than anything and I thrive on them.”

Ryan O Neal characterized their relationship as “no big thing.”