Jonathan Rhys Meyers Turns Back To Drink After His Mother’s Sudden Death
Days after being arrested in a Dublin airport for being too drunk in public to know how to act in public, Jonathan Rhys Meyers was spotted on the street, another drink in hand:
After being arrested Sunday for public drunkenness at Ireland’s Dublin Airport, August Rush actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers was photographed drinking from a can of what appears to Strongbow cider on the streets of London on Tuesday.
Strongbow Cider, for those of you who don’t know (and that would be me) is an alcoholic beverage that is approximately 5.3% alcohol by volume, which is about the strength of a regular beer.
According to the Sun, he had just heard that his mother had died:
Geraldine Meyers, 50, passed away after a sudden illness in the Mercy Hospital in Cork at 7am.
Jonathan, 30, was spotted walking the streets of London with the extra-strength cider.
The thing that makes this sad is that thirty-year-old Jonathan has already spent two stints in rehab, and swore that he’d never take a drink again:
A notorious partier, he’s recently sworn off alcohol. “I didn’t drink until I was 25, and I never drank every day, but when I did, it was bad. It would be a couple of days that just wouldn’t work out for me, waking up with a hangover. Drink doesn’t fit into the groove of where my life is going.â€
Rhys Meyers, now 30, has been in rehab twice.
“I want to do really good things with my life,†he says. “And drinking is not synonymous with that. The [Richard] Burton days, the [Peter] O’Toole days, they are gone.â€
And, in another interview, he says that he doesn’t want to fritter away his career on drink:
You live in LA now. What’s your life like there?
I’m quite insular when I’m working. I live very healthily – I have done for a while now. My big thing is going to the gym. It’s very LA. And I don’t drink alcohol any more, under any circumstances. [This interview was conducted before Jonathan was arrested this week for public drunkenness and breach of the peace in Dublin.]Why did you stop?
I got bored. It’s not a way to live. I stopped. I wanted different things.Such as?
Better work. My health. If you go out and party six nights a week in your twenties, you think you’re invincible. Then you find at 35 you’re not getting good roles any more because you’re a fat ugly f***, because you’ve been out hitting the booze for years, doing drugs and screwing different girls. Growing up in Ireland, I saw many a handsome young man walk into the bar with great dreams. Then I saw the same man sitting there 15 years later, still nursing the pint.Don’t you miss drinking?
Sometimes it would be nice to go out and go on a bender but no, not really. I don’t like hangovers. It’s just not my deal any more.
Staying sober is a very difficult thing to do, as anyone who struggles with any sort of addiction can attest. It isn’t a day-to-day decision, it is a minute-to-minute decision, sometimes even a second-to-second decision. You can’t let your guard down even for a second or you’re back at square one again. It’s at times like this, when bad things happen, that you really have to be on your guard against any sort of temptation. Falling off the wagon was bad enough, but to add the news of his mother’s death when he was already at a low point probably just compounded the bad situation.
Perhaps Jonathan has learned that, when it comes to things like this, you can never say “never”. “I’ll never drink again,” is a pretty heady statement to make, and one that is basically guaranteed to set you up for failure. Something like, “I’ll do the best I can with what I’ve learned to make good decisions and to stay away from situations that might tempt me to drink,” is longer, but possibly more accurate.
In any case, I hope he realizes that he can’t continue like this and gets the appropriate help. The first step is admitting you have a problem.
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>>Perhaps Jonathan has learned that, when it comes to things like this, you can never say “neverâ€. “I’ll never drink again,†is a pretty heady statement to make, and one that is basically guaranteed to set you up for failure. Something like, “I’ll do the best I can with what I’ve learned to make good decisions and to stay away from situations that might tempt me to drink,†is longer, but possibly more accurate.
Comment by Barbara — November 22, 2007 @ 10:59 am
This is an old photo as he wasn’t walking the streets of London after he heard of his mother’s death. I’m his cousin and know for a fact that he was immediately driven to the airport to board a flight back to Cork…in the presence of his girlfriend and father! He wasn’t at any stage alone upon hearing the news.
Comment by Philip — November 23, 2007 @ 2:43 pm