Seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe today hit back at claims by former wife Tatum O'Neal that he took steroids during his tennis career.
"I am very disappointed in Tatum's statement," said the 43-year-old McEnroe in a statement released through his manager, Gary Swain.
"I had hoped that after all these years she would see things more accurately and she would share my concern for the welfare of our children," the statement said.
O'Neal, 38, alleged in an interview with US television network ABC's 20/20 news programme scheduled for broadcast on Friday that the performance-enhancing drugs made the three-time Wimbledon champion violent as he returned to the tour in 1988.
"I made him stop because he was becoming violent," O'Neal told interviewer Barbara Walters.
"(McEnroe) would take out all his rage onto me" when his career wasn't going well, she said, because he blamed her as the cause "of his losing, yes, myself and the children."
McEnroe said in his recent biography, "You Cannot Be Serious", that he also took recreational drugs during his high-profile tennis career, but he never admitted taking steroids, which are banned by the Association of Tennis Professionals.
O'Neal corroborated McEnroe's casual drug use, saying that they used drugs together in the ABC interview. She admitted that she still battles drug addiction.
The tennis star, who won all his Grand Slam titles between 1979 and 1984, had a resurgence late in his career and reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 1989 and 1992.
Swain said the McEnroe would not comment further on the accusations but added, of his personal relationship with him: "I have known John for 20 years and he has never knowingly taken steroids."
AFP