Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers has put his embarrassing domestic dispute on an airplane behind him after reclaiming his sobriety.
The Mission: Impossible III star and his wife Mara Lane hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons earlier this month (Jul18), after they publicly fought over his drinking on a flight to Los Angeles from Miami.
Jonathan, who has struggled with alcohol addiction for most of his adult life, admits he reached for a drink at the wrong time, opening up about the incident in a new interview with newsman and talk show host Larry King.
“My wife and I had been travelling since 3 o’clock in the morning from Peru back to Los Angeles,” the 40 year old The Tudors star recalled, "and they (airline personnel) gave away our tickets - it was just a problem with the airline. We had our baby (one year old son Wolf), who was teething at the time, and it was all kind of frustrating.
"So we eventually got on the flight and my wife went to sleep and I very stupidly decided to order a drink. When my wife found that I'd ordered a drink, she got very, very angry with me because I shouldn’t drink. It doesn’t suit me and I had been sober for a long time."
Jonathan confesses he made another big mistake minutes later - and broke federal aviation law.
"I got upset and I took out an e-cigarette," he continued, "and the airline staff told me that I wasn’t allowed to smoke an e-cigarette, so I put it away. And then I spoke to the Los Angeles police once we got there (landed), who were incredibly kind, incredibly understanding. I apologised for my behaviour, and that’s the entire story."
Police officers in Los Angeles decided not to detain Jonathan for his bad behaviour on the plane and the actor says he sought help right away after his chat with the cops.
“As soon as I got off the airplane I went and spoke to somebody and I got back on track (with my sobriety) immediately," he said, noting the flight flub ultimately turned out to be a positive wake-up call: “It is a good opportunity to apologise to anybody who was offended that that incident happened, but I learned my lesson."
Jonathan has a bad track record when it comes to drinking while travelling - the star was ejected from an airport in Dublin, Ireland last year (17) for public intoxication. In light of his most recent airplane incident, in addition to staying sober from alcohol, he also plans to quit smoking to lead a good example for his son.
