Tatum O’Neal says she’ll miss her estranged father, Ryan, “forever” after his death on Friday.
“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 Post has contacted reps for Tatum but has not heard back.
Tatum, 60, is Ryan’s firstborn child who he shared with his ex-wife Joanna Moore.
The father-daughter duo had a rocky relationship, starting when they both starred in “Paper Moon” in 1973.
Tatum was just 10 years old in the film, and her performance won her an Oscar, making her the youngest person ever to win an Academy Award.
But she claims her big win became the first strain in their relationship.
“He loved me, but then hated me because I won the Academy Award,” Tatum told the Hollywood Reporter in July. “Weird s–t happened. It kind of went in the wrong direction to happiness.”
Ryan admitted in 2011 that the movie changed the way he viewed Tatum.
“I had this peculiar thing on ‘Paper Moon,’ and that is the director insisted she wasn’t my daughter,” he claimed on the pair’s reality show “Ryan and Tatum: The O’Neals,” which invited cameras to document their failed reconciliation.
“The director insisted that my character, Moses, never thought for a second that this was his daughter. So he wanted me to make sure that I didn’t think of her as my daughter. And maybe it never wore off,” he said.
It wouldn’t be until Tatum suffered a massive stroke from a prescription drug overdose in 2020 that she would again attempt to connect with Ryan.
They had a successful meeting in September 2020 — where the “Peyton Place” also star visited with his grandkids whom he hadn’t seen in 17 years, but never spoke again until this year.
Still, Tatum wished her father a happy 82nd birthday on Instagram this past April.
“Happy birthday dad I love you,” she captioned a picture of them smiling while sitting on a bed, where a large photo of his former partner Farrah Fawcett hung overhead.
“I think he’s gotten a little bit better in his life,” Tatum told THR in July. “I mean, he’s an amazing man, my dad, and I miss him terribly.”
“I don’t want him to die,” she added. “I love him. I love my dad. I mean, I’ve had a hard life with my dad — but I still love him.”
Ryan also had three other children: Griffin, 59, Patrick, 56, and Redmond, 38.
Patrick, a sportscaster, announced Ryan’s death on Friday.
“So this is the toughest thing I’ve ever had to say but here we go,” he wrote on Instagram. “My dad passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side supporting him and loving him as he would us. My father Ryan O’Neal has always been my hero. I looked up to him and he was always bigger than life.”
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