Ryan O’Neal’s grandson Sean McEnroe calls his reunion with daughter Tatum a ‘miraculous moment’

Actor Ryan O’Neal reunited with daughter Tatum and his grandchildren in a heartwarming Instagram this week, marking the first time they’d been photographed together in 17 years.

And the 79-year-old actor’s grandson Sean McEnroe, 32, called bringing the family back together an ‘extremely magical, kind of miraculous moment’ while opening up to People in a new interview.

The snapshot was ‘huge deal’ for the family according to McEnroe, whose Oscar-winning mother Tatum, 56, was famously estranged from her father Ryan for years.

Fans of old Hollywood were delighted to see the family portrait, which McEnroe called one of the ‘most memorable photos of my life’ in the caption.

And while it was an emotional personal moment, Sean – whose father is tennis icon John McEnroe – admitted he ‘did not expect’ the reactions to be so strong.

Still, Sean said it makes sense seeing how long the bumpy family history goes back

‘There are so many people who have been following this family saga literally for like 50 years, 40 years,’ he said.

‘At a time where there’s so little hope right now and people are really scared, really overwhelmed, and really having a hard time having faith that things are going to be better, there’s this family and if anyone knows this family, they know that this is probably the last family that will ever reconcile,’ he went on, adding that it was ‘an “anything is possible” moment.’

Tatum and Ryan – who both acted on the 1973 film Paper Moon – have had a famously volatile relationship that resulted in a falling out that lasted nearly 25 years. 

But Sean said grandpa Ryan and mom Tatum’s reunion signaled there is hop for even the most complicated families.

‘It’s really rare to have a family have this much chaos and drama over such a long span, and I think that’s actually the thing most families can relate to,’ McEnroe said.

‘That really kind of fractured, scarred family that’s having a very hard time reconciling and forging a good relationship later in life.’

While Ryan and Tatum were at odds for decades, they began to mend ties after Farrah Fawcett’s death in 2009.

Mr. O’Neal said that Farrah’s passing played ‘a very big role’ in their healing. Fawcett and O’Neal were never married but share 35-year-old son Redmond. 

They were together from the late 70s until they split in 1997.

The couple got back together in 2001 after Ryan was diagnosed with leukemia. They were still together when Fawcett passed away from anal cancer 11 years ago.

‘She brought us back together,’ Tatum said in 2010.