According to unofficial biographer and ex-daughter-in-law Patrice Chaplin, O'Neill was an alcoholic, and became almost a recluse after returning permanently to Manoir de Ban in the late 1980s.
He only saw pureness and innocence and youth and beauty.
She had eight children with Chaplin and remained married to him until he died in 1977.
In 1960 he married the French dancer and actress Noëlle Adam, by whom he had one son, Stéphane.