1977-1979 Tatum O’Neal

Michael speaks about Tatum to Bashir, Living With Michael Jackson, Aired 9th February 2003


Asked about girlfriends, he spoke of Tatum O’Neal, “My first girlfriend who I really loved a lot”.

He said: “I remember her telling me to come over to her house in Beverly Hills, and what she’s going to do to me. All the sexual stuff. So I’m scared to death. Scared because I’d never done anything like that.

“I came over there trying to be Mr Big Shot and brave and I remember she cut out all the lights in bedroom, opened the curtains so you could see the whole skyline of the city over the cliffs. It was beautiful.

“And she told me to lie on the bed. And I did. She slowly walked over and she touched the button of my shirt to open it. I took my hands and I wouldn’t let them down. And she just walked away. She knew I was too shy for it.”

Tatum speaks about what Michael said to Bashir, E Online, Monday, 10th February, 2003


During a sit-down with Bashir, Jackson recounts how a young O’Neal tried to seduce him and steal his virginity. On Friday, O’Neal released a statement saying her heart goes out to the Moonwalker and his family but claims Jackson embellished on what was an innocent relationship. ‘I am just as shocked as everyone else from what I saw last night. I have a great deal of respect for Michael Jackson as an artist and as a person. However, he has a very vivid imagination. His comments about our friendship were inaccurate. Michael did come over to my house when my father was home, but at 12 years old, there was no way I was capable of being as mature or as sophisticated as he claimed I was.’”

Tatum O'Neal, Daily Herald, April 2003
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-101206073.html


Then, reporters called asking about Michael Jackson’s claim in his February documentary that O’Neal seduced him when he visited her house in the 1980s. (“It was a huge lie,” she says).

From Tatum O'Neal's book "A Paper Life", Oct 2004


I met him at the On the Rox, the club Lou Adler & Jack Nicholson opened upstairs from the Roxy on the Sunset Strip. Michael was around 17 at the time, about 5 years older than me, & he seemed very sheltered & fearful & lonely–not at all what you’d expect a world-renowned performer to be. As I recall, he didn’t even know how to drive a car.

He gave me his number, and we started talking everyday–long drawn-out conversations that sometimes got so boring I would hand over the receiver to my friend Esme Gray. Michael would just keep on, thinking he was talking to me. His usual subject was sex. At 12 I didn’t have much to say about sex–all I knew was that it went on, pretty steadily, in my father’s room next to mine. But Michael was intensely curious about anything, everything sexual, though in an incredibly sweet & innocent way.

He was a huge star, but it seemed he barely even dated & knew little about life. He once came to my house and asked to come upstairs because he’d never been in a girl’s bedroom before. He sat on thebed, and we kissed very briefly, but it was terribly awkward. For all my passionate crushes on people like Dustin Hoffman, I was just 12 and not at all ready for a real-life encounter. So I said,’I can’t.’ Michael, who was sweating profusely, seemed as intimidated as I was. He jumped up nervously and said,’Uh, gotta go.’

That’s the closest I ever got to Michael, which is why I’m amazed by his recent claim on national TV that I’d seduced him but he was too shy to carry it through. I absolutely adored Michael–as a friend–and I admire him to this day. I believe that he fell in love with me. I’m told that he wrote the song “She’s Out of My Life” on his album Off the Wall for me. What an honor.

At the time of the supposed seduction, I was barely pubescent, and what I’d seen of sex so far was unappealling & gross. It may have been Michael’s fantasy that I’d seduce him–and it’s a little sad that he cast himself as failing, even in his dream–but it just didn’t happen.

Unfortunately, my friendship with Michael came to an abrupt ending. He’d played the Scarecrow in The Wiz, the urban remake of the Wizard of Oz, which starred Diana Ross as Dorothy. For the film’s premiere, Michael invited me to be his date. I asked my dad, who didn’t care one way or another if I went, but my talent agency was dead set against it. I was told, in exactly these words: ‘You can’t go to a premiere with a ni**er.’ Hollywood!

That upset me tremendously. Had I been old enough–or had I the parental support–I could have stood my ground & insisted ‘Oh yes, I can.’ But my father was too disengaged to help me think it through. So, without telling Michael the reason, I turned him down. He was devastated. After that Michael didn’t speak to me for years, until I ran into him at the Helmsley Palace in New York. For old times’ sake, we caught a concert together, Kool and the Gang at Madison Square Garden. Michael dressed in full costume for the event–coming in blackface, with a pasted-on beard–the whole nine yards. But things were never the same between us.”

Tatum O'Neal, Newsweek, October 25, 2004


You were friends with Michael Jackson. When your boys were little, would you have let them stay over at Neverland?

Absolutely not. Are you kidding?

So do you think he’s guilty?

Ah, Jesus juice… I really don’t know. I don’t understand why he would have little children around all the time. He’s guilty of being a completely misguided soul in the world.

Joe talks about Tatum and Michael's relationship, Joe Jackson's autobiography (roughly translated from German), 2004


In 1984, my son already had had a few girlfriends. Everyone knows that he and Tatum O’Neal kissed at a party in the Playboy mension. Tatum was his first love. Then there was Brooke Shields, but she was too young then, and Michael was always a gentleman. He nevertheless courted her and bought her a ring with a big diamond. He frequently told his mother about how much Brooke meant to him.

Tatum, Brooke and Michael had a lot in common. All three were child stars.

Tatum O'Neal is speaking out about the death of her fellow former child star Michael Jackson, June 2009


“The world lost two unbelievable talents in one day. There are no words that can express the sadness I feel in my heart. My condolences go out to his family,” she told ET exclusively.

Tatum Attends Memorial, Hiphopweekly, July 7th 2009


Two of Michael’s former dates, Brooke Shields and Tatum O’Neal, showed support of their childhood buddy along with other celebrities, including Dionne Warwick, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and BET’s Debra Lee and Stephen Hill.

Tatum O'Neal, The Daily Beast, June 15th 2011


Farrah and Michael Jackson passed away the same day. That’s a pretty full-circle thing for you, to have your first “public” boyfriend and your father’s great love that sort of drove a wedge between you two, pass at the same time.

[Michael] was somebody I knew and I did go on a date with, but I don’t know about my first “public boyfriend.” Let’s call that the media’s take on my first “public boyfriend.” First of all, how sad to lose two fucking icons. Secondly, it sort of canceled Farrah out a little bit because she didn’t get the moment that I think she deserved and could have had. At the same time, this is life, man. This isn’t about who’s going to get the better farewell.

It’s interesting, because you say in your book that your father was disapproving of all your boyfriends except for Michael Jackson. He said he knew how much Michael “adored” you.

He liked Michael Jackson but he likes famous people. He’s that guy. But I don’t think he wanted me to have any dates the same way I didn’t want him to have any dates.

Tatum O'Neal say she made out with Michael on Howard Stern, June 15th 2011





Howard: Ever make out with…
Tatum: Michael Jackson? Yes.
Howard: So you did make out with Michael Jackson?
Tatum: (laughing) Yes. Uh-huh.
Howard: Now that’s weird.
Tatum: Sorry. That’s not weird, come on, that’s lucky. A lot of people would want to make out with him, it was before had all that face work done, come on.
Howard: But I thought you said he was kind of scared…
Tatum: He was scared… he had a big half… (gets interrupted)
Howard: Of course he was scared, he was a homosexual man.
Tatum: Was he? Is that what you think? He was in love with Diana Ross and I know that that was real.

Tatum O'Neal on twitter, June 17th 2011


jermjackson5 Jermaine Jackson
I’m sure @Tatum_Oneal meant well. She was otherwise kind about Michael, but this myth is upsetting

Tatum_Oneal Tatum O’Neal
@NitashaNath Michael jackson was the sweetest person in the entire world.x

Tatum_Oneal Tatum O’Neal
@mimimjfan I met Michael the first time when I was 13. But we were friends for a long time. X

Tatum_Oneal Tatum O’Neal
And I want to stand on my bed and start cheering.that I have not received a cruel tweet from an MJ fan in 10 whole mins. Yay yay yay

jermjackson5 Jermaine Jackson
@Tatum_Oneal Pls RT this: Michael was fit & well, ready to rock the world again. then his life was taken. “addiction” nothing to do with it

jermjackson5 Jermaine Jackson
@Tatum_Oneal I didn’t intend for ugliness either. I intended to clarify. so ur RTs of Chinese Whispers from the media educated hardly help

Tatum_Oneal Tatum O’Neal
@jermjackson5. Your very welcome. I had no intention of starting any kind controversy. He was beloved by me as well. Tatum peace

jermjackson5 Jermaine Jackson
@Tatum_Oneal thank you for that retweet, Tatum. best of luck with your show

JakkiB Jakki Byrne
@IAMAARONCARTER Should be part of the education system along with @Tatum_Oneal as leading examples of WHY Not to do drugs!!! #Fail

Tatum_Oneal Tatum O’Neal
@JakkiB I totally agree

@RatmiMj09
what do you feel when you first time met michael?

Tatum_Oneal Tatum O’Neal
love

Ryan O'Neal mentions Michael and Tatum, on Piers Morgan, June 19th 2011


MORGAN: This is a tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Your brother said that your father gave him drugs when he was, I think, 11. Did he do that to you?
T. O’NEAL: You’ll have to ask him.
MORGAN: Why are you reluctant to say?
T. O’NEAL: Because we have a show we’re doing and I don’t want to say incriminating that are going to make it harder to kind of make peace and have a healing. Every time I kind of bring up the bad stuff, it just doesn’t go towards making a healing and getting us to a better place. I know for sure my dad made a lot of mistakes. I’m sure that he’s living with them today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O’NEAL: Now, she’s been saying that for 25 years. She can’t stop saying it. Why? Why does she do that? It’s because she needs a reason for why she collapsed. Why her career and her marriage, her children, they all went south. Why did that happen? Because I had a terrible childhood. She had a wonderful childhood. She met Queen Elizabeth. She traveled the world. She was a millionairess by the time she was 12.
MORGAN: Does that make you –
O’NEAL: It doesn’t hurt, OK.
MORGAN: Doesn’t it?
O’NEAL: It doesn’t hurt, no.
MORGAN: Can it?
O’NEAL: She had a career. She had a picture. She had everything she wanted. She danced with Michael Jackson. He called every night. She was a happy camper. OK?

"Found: A Daughter's Journey Home," Tatum O'Neal, released June 14th 2011


When I was a teenager, I discovered that some people, mostly women, befriended me to get to Ryan. That was an eye-opener, and I discovered that there was a safety in people who were already known or successful on their own terms. When I dated Andy Gibb and Michael Jackson, I know they weren’t going out with me because of who I was. They didn’t need me. The same was true with John.

[...]

Then he added “You were sixteen, then seventeen, and you were going through all kinds of changes that I wasn’t comfortable with. I didn’t quite understand all this growth-hormone stuff. The boyfriends. Michael Jackson adored you. That was all right with me. But nobody else. ” This was my father, not the all-powerful god I worshiped as a child but a young man saddled with an adolescent daughter he didn’t understand.

Jermaine talks about Michael and Tatum's relationship, "You Are Not Alone" by Jermaine Jackson, released Septemeber 2011


The secluded privacy of [my ranch/beach house] appealed to [Michael]. That was presumably what appealed to my neighbors, too: actors Ryan O’Neal (four doors down) and Beau Bridges (directly next door). It was during my morning runs on the beach that I used to wave at Ryan’s daughter, Tatum, as she stood on the balcony. She was a 13 year old child star at the time, having won an Oscar at the age of 10 for Best Supporting Actress in Paper Moon. I told Michael there was “this real pretty girl” living nearby and, coincidentally, he started showing up at the beach house more and more at weekends. But here’s the ironic thing: they waved at each other but never spoke until they bumped into one another in a club on Sunset Strip.

“It’s meant to be,” I joked.

“It’s nothing, we’re just friends,” he said, playing down its importance. But it was obvious from Tatum’s visits to Hayvenhurst that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. She was clearly smitten and he was giddy around her, but Michael was guarded about when and where he saw her. I don’t remember one visit to Malibu when he left my house to see her, or they met at the beach. Which seemed odd, but Michael’s sense of privacy and discretion, even among his siblings, was notable.

I am aware that Tatum has publicly distanced herself from being Michael’s childhood sweetheart, but I don’t think my brother suggested that they shared a blazing passionate love affair. It was nothing but puppy love. But what matters is that, in my brother’s heart and mind, Tatum was his first girlfriend.