John McEnroe dishes on ex Tatum O'Neal, Ryan O'Neal's OWN reality show

tatum comes off as a spoiled,vindictive, petty whiny brat with nothing to do but re-hash decades old history looking for apology blood from anyone left standing. Quit whining! Your mom's problems DO NOT give you the OK to shoot **** up your arm! And as you are ripping Ryan a new one, lets take a look at YOUR parenting skills while a junkie. Were'nt your kids taken away from you?? Where do you get off criticizing anyone?? You suck and are so immemorable that you should slink off to some AA meeting by yourself instead of dragging your Dad (how ole are you) for some self admiration. Yoiu make me sick.

I usually avoid reality shows or anything aired by Oprah, but my partner, who is undergoing intensive therapy for a host of mental health issues, urged me to watch the O'Neals with him. We both remember Ryan from his heartthrob days on Peyton Place and in Love Story, then lost track of him. I was never a Tatum fan, but given my experience helping my partner cope with biologically and environmentally induced conditions, including PTSD, fueled by parental abuse and later workplace harassment, I found Tatum's reactions entirely believable. My partner had years of therapy during his 20s-30s, so he lived a productive life, unencumbered by drug or alcohol dependence. Unfortunately, the scars of childhood abuse don't ever really heal, despite lots of therapy. Tatum is probably expecting too much of Ryan, but Ryan should own more of his past mistakes. I almost wonder if he has blocked those awful memories or whether his substance/alcohol abuse issues caused him to black out sometimes. However, Tatum has every right to experience her very real pain; she reconciled with her mother as she was dying and even paid her mother's bills. That doesn't seem spoiled, vindictive or petty. Tatum also owned her failures, which is no doubt why her kids still have relationships with her. Just because she made mistakes as a parent doesn't let Ryan off the hook. She's not the only one of his children to have issues with him. Recent studies increasingly recognize hereditary links to alcohol and drug abuse, most likely caused by genetic predisposition, as well as environmental influences. This show actually seems to be one of the few in this genre to give a pretty realistic portrait of recovery from substance/alcohol/child abuse issues.

I find McEnroe's comments very interesting. A couples marriage is between themselves, not even their own children except if 1 parent or the other is abusive. As people age they come to understand the dynamics of life which form US. Often there is a lot to overcome as far as childhood issues are concerned and then there is a lot to overcome in the mistakes we all make because of childhood trauma.

I find it very interesting that the "bad boy" of tennis thinks he is so mistake free that he should comment on anything to do with his ex wife, let alone what the rest of us should do or think. His out of control actions both on and off court paint him as no saint. Did Tatum begin or just increase her taste for drugs while she was with him? With his violent temper one wonders if he was as abusive to her and the children. He may not think the rest of us were smart enough to see him for what he was or is. Like God says, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

i have been watching the o'neals in Australia, i don't know when it started in the states, we seemed to get things a bit later here. I liked her at first & felt sorry for her but as the show went on i think she really wants her father for herself & i think it wouldn't matter who he was with she would never except them. Why did she hate Farrah so much.