Antonio Banderas Talks About Melanie Griffith’s Struggle with Addiction
Posted on September 9, 2009Melanie Griffith’s husband Antonio Banderas has spoken out about her return to rehab, revealing she checked into the Cirque Lodge in Utah because she was feeling too weak to resist her urge for drugs.
Griffith struggled with alcohol and drugs in the 1970s and 1980s, and spent time in rehab in 1998 and again in 2000 in an effort to stop abusing prescription painkillers. Griffith’s representatives had previously refused to disclose the reason for her stay in rehab, but Banderas has said she turned to professionals in order to prevent a relapse.
Banderas also told talk show host Ellen Degeneres that his marriage is not in danger. "Let me explain to you,” he said. “It was actually in some magazine that I said that I gave an ultimatum to my wife. That I present the matter of divorce because she has been involved in addictions and blah, blah, blah…”
"Melanie has been addicted for many years and we always came out. We said it out loud. It was OK, we were never embarrassed of the situation but…she was clean and sober for six years."
However, Griffith felt her resolve weaken after three operations on her knee following a skiing accident at the start of 2008. She feared taking the medication she was prescribed to numb the pain would tempt her back onto harder drugs.
Banderas said, "In March, she came to me and said, ‘I’m feeling a little bit weak in my determination for this (to stay sober)…so I just thought to go to rehabilitation by myself.’"
Griffith’s entire family is behind her, and her relatives even attend group therapy sessions with her.
Banderas said, "We have been following some type of therapy with other families. There are a number of invisible heroes working in AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) all around the world. I just say to families, ‘Don’t get embarrassed, just confront this problem head-on. And don’t hide from that because there is a beautiful gift at the end of this tunnel, and it is the person that you love back, and that is what I am searching for.”
"So the whole entire family is supporting her, and I am supporting her, and at this particular time more than ever. I’m very proud of her."
