Many understood Redmond’s absence from the burial, but what was more shocking was that two of his other children were apparently also missing from the 82-year-old star’s small memorial service at Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
One of O’Neal’s sons, Griffin O’Neal, revealed that he wasn’t even invited to the ceremony.
Griffin, the son from O’Neal’s first marriage to Joanna Moore, told the New York Post that he drove 2,000 miles from his home in Houston, Texas, to attend the memorial service.
However, upon arriving, he learned that the service wouldn’t take place until the weekend after Christmas.
“I wasn’t even invited to send him off,” Griffin O’Neal told The Post.
According to Griffin, he and his father hadn’t spoken in 17 years. Their relationship broke down after a violent altercation in 2007 at Ryan O’Neal’s home in Malibu, where Griffin allegedly swung a fireplace poker at his dad, and Ryan aimed a gun at him. “I could have hit him, but I missed,” O’Neal said.
Despite this history, Griffin still wanted to say goodbye to his father. However, that sentiment wasn’t shared by his brother, Patrick O’Neal, 57, a Los Angeles sportscaster who had grown closer to their dad in recent years.
It was Patrick who organized the funeral, according to The Post.
The memorial service was attended by only about 25 people, including Patrick’s mother, actress Leigh Taylor-Young, 79, Ryan’s second wife. Given the significant mark Ryan O’Neal left on Hollywood history, one might expect his memorial service to have been a grand affair.
Tatum O’Neal, Ryan’s daughter from his marriage to actress Joanna Moore, was also not there, according to The New York Post. Their complicated relationship went back many years.
