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Surviving Myself
Jennifer O’Neill knows about fame and despair. Even before she skyrocketed to movie stardom at age twenty-one co-starring with John Wayne in Rio Lobo, she had experienced more than most women twice her international modeling at fifteen, married at seventeen, and motherhood at nineteen. Hurtling through a seductive world of glamour, money, and travel at breakneck speed, Jennifer went on to capture hearts with her coveted role in Summer of ’42.Her career was a dream come her private nightmare had just begun. In Jennifer’s relentless search for love, the dark years that followed saw scandal and sorrow offset by her exceptional beauty and style as she struggled through the trauma of eight marriages, nine miscarriages, a near-fatal gunshot wound, and three other near-death experiences. Even motherhood proved a painful trial when one of her husbands sexually abused her oldest child, Aimee.But Jennifer O’Neill is a survivor – by the grace of God. Now, with renewed optimism, she looks back on her past with an unsparing honesty tempered with compassion, humor, and insight. Her story is an unforgettable drama of a resilient, talented, whimsical, yet deeply troubled woman redeemed by the gift of her spiritual awakening that changed her life forever.
352 pages, Paperback
First published March 3, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 29, 2025
Jennifer O'Neill pens a beautiful personal testimony of the transformational power of Jesus in her life. I was amazed at her transparency in this book – she gives the unvarnished truth and holds nothing back. She shares her life story as a famous actress and model - including personal trauma and tragedies along the way. Her story is one of redemption and grace as only our Savior can give. Her testimony because of what Jesus Christ has done in her life includes her own healing, acceptance - and the truth that it is never too late to turn to Him - He has a plan, a future and a hope for each of us.
I found her deep dive into her decades long career very interesting - especially that her love for horses was her initial main motivation for embarking on her incredible career, so she could afford to buy one! I also enjoyed hearing about her first movie filmed with John Wayne.
And now, so many years after beginning her career, she now heads up a life changing project at her horse ranch in Tennessee called 'Hope & Healing at Hillenglade Equine-Assisted Programs' - serving veterans, first responders and their families. What an amazing person she is. She gives all glory to God! Amen!
I found her deep dive into her decades long career very interesting - especially that her love for horses was her initial main motivation for embarking on her incredible career, so she could afford to buy one! I also enjoyed hearing about her first movie filmed with John Wayne.
And now, so many years after beginning her career, she now heads up a life changing project at her horse ranch in Tennessee called 'Hope & Healing at Hillenglade Equine-Assisted Programs' - serving veterans, first responders and their families. What an amazing person she is. She gives all glory to God! Amen!
March 10, 2012
I really liked this when she talked about her life-long love of animals, but then her personal life got crazy. I couldn't even keep track of her marriages. This memoir was really similar to Georgia Durante's. They were both models who married young and immediately had a daughter; later they both became estranged to their daughters and both daughters were molested by their step-dad.
July 9, 2024
Confused, crazed Christian writes a creepy book so difficult to fathom that I had trouble surviving it myself! With very little about her career, this autobiography hops and skips through marriages, pets, and a whole bunch of stuff that we either don't care about or that makes no sense.
Jennifer O'Neill seems like a sweet-hearted person, but to marry NINE TIMES (including one guy she knew was gay and divorcing three times after she became a born-again Christian) shows a gigantic flaw in her personality. This memoir only makes her look bad--it's not the inspiring Christian life story that she wants to try to turn it quickly at the end. Instead it's a depressing, incomplete mess of a book that shows her making bad decisions over and over, some that are so incredible that you can't believe she's willing to admit to them on paper.
Not only is her daughter sexually abused by one of her husbands from age 11 to 14, but when the daughter reports it to a counselor O'Neill doesn't believe her child and spends years split from her abused daughter in order to support her pedophile husband. The author only finally accepts the truth when the creepy ex moves on to other marriages and abuses another wife's daughter. Then, this mindless cover girl actress allows her son to go live with the creep and defends it! Simply insane.
Another is her defense of driving after drinking, speeding and being stopped by a cop for DUI, then complaining about media coverage and claiming the thing to learn is "it is extremely inadvisable to talk back to an officer, especially one with a bad temper" (see her blame-shifting there?).
Then O'Neill "accidentally" shoots herself in one of the most difficult-to-believe scenarios I've ever read. The cops didn't believe her either and because (she says) she won't testify against her husband (because he'd get thrown back in jail--yes, she married a criminal), SHE gets charged with illegal gun possession and complains about it. If you're confused by reading all that, know that the entire book is like it.
I could tell you dozens of misguided decisions listed in the book that would make any normal person wonder what's wrong with Jennifer O'Neill. But to then have her come on in the last few pages and claim her faith in Christ has consoled her despite her anger at God for still allowing problems in her life proves that this woman has no idea that she is the cause of most of the bad things that have happened.
There are a few glimpses of light where she seems to get it. She falls madly in love very quickly, even admitting to "a string of engagements" that she doesn't detail here, writing, "The problem was within me. I didn't have the self-respect and spiritual grounding to wait for the right time and the right commitment before having sex." Okay, but why did that not actually occur to her until long after she had become a born-again Christian and divorced a few more men that she had jumped in bed with?
I'm somewhat grateful that she is now very pro-life, saying when she got pregnant by a rich boyfriend who wanted her to get an abortion, "I was told in the seventies that a pregnancy was just a blob of tissue in my uterus up until three months gestation...deep down I knew I was wrong when everyone was saying it was all right. Nothing in the world could ever make me opt for that choice again." The problem is that most readers will consider her attempts hypocrisy to tell others to not do what she did despite becoming rich and famous.
I had hoped this would be the story of the woman at the well who was married multiple times and encounters Christ; instead we get a defense of a lifetime of horrible choices and making excuses even after her commitment to Jesus instead of being the up front, honest believer she claims to be. At one point she writes, "I am not an unintelligent person, but I was certainly acting like one." I'm not sure about the first half of that statement but to the last half I'll say, "Amen."
Jennifer O'Neill seems like a sweet-hearted person, but to marry NINE TIMES (including one guy she knew was gay and divorcing three times after she became a born-again Christian) shows a gigantic flaw in her personality. This memoir only makes her look bad--it's not the inspiring Christian life story that she wants to try to turn it quickly at the end. Instead it's a depressing, incomplete mess of a book that shows her making bad decisions over and over, some that are so incredible that you can't believe she's willing to admit to them on paper.
Not only is her daughter sexually abused by one of her husbands from age 11 to 14, but when the daughter reports it to a counselor O'Neill doesn't believe her child and spends years split from her abused daughter in order to support her pedophile husband. The author only finally accepts the truth when the creepy ex moves on to other marriages and abuses another wife's daughter. Then, this mindless cover girl actress allows her son to go live with the creep and defends it! Simply insane.
Another is her defense of driving after drinking, speeding and being stopped by a cop for DUI, then complaining about media coverage and claiming the thing to learn is "it is extremely inadvisable to talk back to an officer, especially one with a bad temper" (see her blame-shifting there?).
Then O'Neill "accidentally" shoots herself in one of the most difficult-to-believe scenarios I've ever read. The cops didn't believe her either and because (she says) she won't testify against her husband (because he'd get thrown back in jail--yes, she married a criminal), SHE gets charged with illegal gun possession and complains about it. If you're confused by reading all that, know that the entire book is like it.
I could tell you dozens of misguided decisions listed in the book that would make any normal person wonder what's wrong with Jennifer O'Neill. But to then have her come on in the last few pages and claim her faith in Christ has consoled her despite her anger at God for still allowing problems in her life proves that this woman has no idea that she is the cause of most of the bad things that have happened.
There are a few glimpses of light where she seems to get it. She falls madly in love very quickly, even admitting to "a string of engagements" that she doesn't detail here, writing, "The problem was within me. I didn't have the self-respect and spiritual grounding to wait for the right time and the right commitment before having sex." Okay, but why did that not actually occur to her until long after she had become a born-again Christian and divorced a few more men that she had jumped in bed with?
I'm somewhat grateful that she is now very pro-life, saying when she got pregnant by a rich boyfriend who wanted her to get an abortion, "I was told in the seventies that a pregnancy was just a blob of tissue in my uterus up until three months gestation...deep down I knew I was wrong when everyone was saying it was all right. Nothing in the world could ever make me opt for that choice again." The problem is that most readers will consider her attempts hypocrisy to tell others to not do what she did despite becoming rich and famous.
I had hoped this would be the story of the woman at the well who was married multiple times and encounters Christ; instead we get a defense of a lifetime of horrible choices and making excuses even after her commitment to Jesus instead of being the up front, honest believer she claims to be. At one point she writes, "I am not an unintelligent person, but I was certainly acting like one." I'm not sure about the first half of that statement but to the last half I'll say, "Amen."
May 31, 2020
My new friend, Jen, you are amazing! This is a must read! What this Angel has endured throughout her life, her strength to get through it all, her resilience, her love and all she has done and continues to do for others, and her incredible faith in God, is powerful. She is SUCH an inspiration. I can't wait to visit HHH someday as we continue to honor and help our Warriors heal, together. God bless you.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews