Is There an O'Neal Family Curse?

Feb. 7, 2007 — -- Their love story began in 1979, but the lives of Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett have been anything but a fairy tale.

From drugs to attempted suicide to cancer, it's been a rocky road all around for the O'Neal clan.

Most recently, Ryan made headlines for allegations that he faced off with his adult son Griffin in a family dispute. The incident resulted in charges of assault with a deadly weapon and negligent discharge of a firearm for 65-year-old Ryan.

The embarrassing headlines arrived just one day after some good news for the family. Farrah was given a clean bill of health after going through a cancer scare.

But with a long list of family fights, health problems and run-ins with the law, some are questioning whether there's an O'Neal family curse.

Ryan's longtime friend and Houston lawyer Kent Schaffer said to ABC News, "I would like to see happier times for them, but I wouldn't call it an O'Neal curse, just a run of bad luck. Just as Farrah gets her clean bill of health, this happens to Ryan."

But Ryan's daughter with actress Joanna Moore, Tatum O'Neal, acknowledged a curse in her tell-all book, "A Paper Life."

"I slipped into the darkness of depression and addiction that seems to be the family curse," she wrote.

Tatum, who for years has had a strained and allegedly violent relationship with her father, admits to attempting suicide and battling drug abuse.

She also struggled with a very public and messy divorce with ex-husband, tennis pro John McEnroe, and the temporary loss of custody of their three children.

Tatum's brother, 42-year-old Griffin, served jail time for not performing community service in relation to a 1986 reckless boating charge that resulted in the death of Gian-Carlo Coppola, the son of director Francis Ford Coppola.

He also pleaded no contest to a drunken-driving charge in 1989. In 1992, he pleaded no contest to charges he shot at his estranged girlfriend's unoccupied car.

And Farrah and Ryan's only son together, Redmond, has struggled with drug addiction.