O'Neal in 2004: Drugs were always around me

(CNN) -- Academy Award-winning actress Tatum O'Neal was arrested Sunday allegedly after buying crack cocaine in New York, police said.

The 44-year-old actress, who penned a 2004 memoir about her long road to sobriety, was arrested after being seen making a purchase from a drug dealer, police said.

Investigators charged her with criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor.

In 2004, O'Neal appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" to talk about her book, "A Paper Life." O'Neal, who won the best supporting actress Oscar for "Paper Moon" at age 10, is the daughter of actor Ryan O'Neal and the late Joanna Moore. She's the ex-wife of John McEnroe, with whom she shares three children.

Larry King: How did the drug thing start?

Tatum O'Neal: I think it probably started back sometime in the '70s.

King: When you were how old?

O'Neal: I just don't remember exactly. It was just always around.

King: Your father was a part of that, too?

O'Neal: I've been getting some response that I've been blaming. And here's the thing, it was not just around my father, but it was around where I was growing up. It's always been around me. I do not blame him. It started from everyone around me.

King: Schoolmates?

O'Neal: School, as much as I went to school, and that was very little. But it was around everyone. And it really started, you know, when people are like, around 14, like, "Hey, use this to lose weight."

King: Did you try everything?

O'Neal: Eventually, everything, yes.

King: Why did you write this book?

O'Neal: Because I think it's an important story to tell for people. I have gone through a lot.

King: Important rather than just appealing to their sense of the dramatic writing things about dad and mom and friends?

O'Neal: I always wondered when someone was going to say, "Why did you tell this story, Tatum?" I've always tried to think, like, what am I going to say when someone just asks me point-blank, why did you tell this story?

There's just been so much that's happened, and I just ended up in such a bad place. And I kept on living my life through the years, very publicly, and things kind of kept on getting worse and worse. And I went on Barbara Walters, as you know, after John wrote his book. And HarperCollins approached me and said, "Would you be interested in writing your story?"

King: Sort of like my side?

O'Neal: Sort of like that. It was not something I enjoyed doing, by the way, the Barbara Walters. Not at all. Revealing I had a drug problem, revealing that I was imperfect, not that I thought I was perfect, I always thought I was extremely imperfect, but it was -- it was sort of like -- I was outing myself. So therefore, when I did finally agree to write this book, which I knew would be very difficult for me to do, because I've been very afraid of my dad whom I love very much, and unfortunately it doesn't seem like that in the book, but I've been really afraid of him and afraid of John.

King: Afraid?

O'Neal: Yes, afraid.

King: Was it hard to be honest?

O'Neal: It's not hard for me to be honest. I am an honest person. I'm sort of like too honest. I just tend to like blurt it out. My friends say to me, "Just have an edit button, Tatum, please." It goes from my heart out my mouth. I don't seem to run it through my head.

King: When you finished, was there anything you said, "Maybe I should take this out?"

O'Neal: Yes, there have been, certainly for my kids, they've asked me to please, "Did you have to put in, you know, mom, when I was little, you know, the substance abuse stuff."

King: That had to bother you?

O'Neal: My daughter has asked me. But there are mothers out there, I think, Larry, who maybe have gone through similar experiences and perhaps not been able to get their kids back and maybe not had the courage to fight through the embarrassment or the -- just the shame and not gone to treatment, because I've been to a number of treatment centers. I've gotten through it.

Maybe they would just give up. And so perhaps I thought that was important, and it was important for me to be able to say that and her to believe in herself some day if she ever has that problem. For me to say, you know what, this happens and you can get through if you believe in yourself.

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