Tatum O'Neal: I'm dating "mostly women" now

Tatum O'Neal got candid in a new interview, revealing that lately she prefers the company of women.

"I like women," the 51-year-old actress told People. "I definitely have been dating mostly women recently."

"I think women are the most amazing creatures on earth. They're gentle, and also more intelligent than the men that I've met recently," she added.

Yet O'Neal is not re-identifying her sexuality as straight to gay --"I'm not one or the other," she said.

O'Neal married tennis champion John McEnroe in 1986 and had three children with him, Kevin, 29; Sean, 28; and Emily, 24. The two split in 1992, a tumultuous divorce that involved a long custody battle that called her parental fitness into question.

But do not expect to see O'Neal out with a new female partner any time soon. "I don't have a steady right now, but I look forward to it."

The "Paper Moon" child star and daughter of actors Ryan O'Neal and Joanna Moore had struggled with severe substance addictions for decades, though has finally conquered her demons, she said in the interview, and is clean, sober and extremely happy.

"I'm the most content I've ever been," she says. "I'm the proudest mother in the history of the world."

Specifically, O'Neal is beaming with pride of her son Kevin who recently wrote a novel called "Our Town," a fictionalized account of O'Neal's mother, Moore, who herself battled a pill-addiction and grappled with a troubled marriage in the Hollywood spotlight.

"Kevin found her voice so beautifully...The book has so much heart. I wish she were alive to see it," O'Neal said.